NEW DISCOVERY

Just one year after releasing a strong comeback record such as Sacred Pathways, prog/neoclassical metallers Artension returned with their sixth full-length album New Discovery. The album was recorded by the same line-up who had played on the previous record, comprised of the three permanent band members, keyboard wizard Vitalij Kuprij, vocalist John West and guitar player Roger Staffelbach, plus Mike Terrana on drums and Kevin Chown on bass. Stylistically, the new album follows in the footsteps of the band's most recent records, embracing the neoclassical metal sound and leaving behind the prog metal ambitions that had characterized their earlier albums. In addition, New Discovery brings back traces of hard rock that was present at the beginning of Artension's career but had been somewhat left behind in recent years.

Throughout their career Artension had the unfortunate tendency to alternate strong and weak releases. Although not a complete disaster, New Discovery sadly belongs to the latter category. The main culprit is the uninspired songwriting that mars many of the songs on this album. There is a sense of rigidity and formulaic repetitiveness running through the 9 tracks of this LP. Most songs follow the same structure of verse/prechorus/chorus/instrumental break without any variation or innovation. The arrangements are also quite monotonous. Terrana's busy double-bass drumwork is pushed to the front of the mix, with bass and guitar chugging away underneath it, to the point that the songs can often come across as rhythmically dull ("Remember My Name"; "The Last Survivor"). The song melodies, carried by West's vocals and occasionally Kuprij's keyboards, are frequently cut from the same cloth of Baroque-inspired music that inspired Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen, which can be fun to listen to for one or two songs, but rapidly grows tiresome across 50 minutes of material.

To be fair, Kuprij does try to inject some variety into his songwriting, by seeking inspiration in classic hard rock, most evidently on "Hearts Are Broken" and "Call of the Wild" where John West channels his inner Joe Lynn Turner in the most convincing way possible. These songs, however, are quite dull and would probably be classified as fillers on any good Deep Purple or Rainbow album. The album's best songs are thus those where Artension manage to combine neoclassical metal and melodic hard rock in a less unyielding manner, such as on the title-track, "Innocent Soul" and "Story Teller". The obligatory power ballad "Endless Days" is also remarkable, thanks to its memorable melody and John West's soulful performance. Also on the plus side, the album's sound production is significantly improved compared to some of the previous Artension's albums, like Sacred Pathways. Drum, guitars and keyboards sound much better than on that album, probably due to the fact that they were recorded in different studios. The mix is still fairly muddy and compressed, though, and this penalizes particularly the guitars and the bass, which are sometimes difficult to hear clearly.

Ultimately, New Discovery gets appreciated mostly for the quality of the playing of the five musicians involved, than for the ideas that form the music. The solos and instrumental jams that inevitably appear in all songs are all excellent and really fun to listen to. If only Artension had managed to write consistently good songs around them, New Discovery could have been a strong album, while instead it only occupies a decent, but lesser place in Artension's discography.