DIMENSION HATROSS

Québec's leaders in the progression (and creation) of the new metal sub-genres return a year after the stunning breakout album, Killing Technology, to take another step toward the creation of the post-punk Tech/Extreme metal scene.

- Prolog : 1. "Experiment" (6:10) surprisingly slow and clean as the bass and drums chug away beneath Piggy's technically-inventive guitar. (In all honesty, it sounds a bit like the hard rock metal music beneath Cheech and Chong's Alice Bowie performance in "Earache My Eye".) But then the music shifts as Snake gets ready to sing: drums and bass doubling (or tripling) up the bottom end. Snake's vocal performance is more like an all-night punk rocker becoming introspective in his late-night fatigue. The guitarist here is the most impressive; the rest is far more tame than I was expecting (after the previous year's breakout album, Killing Technology). (8.667/10)

2. "Tribal Convictions" (4:52) sounds like a combination of Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Far tamer than I was expecting--and almost melodic. A little Clashiness in the vocal but far less than their previous album. The band certainly feel as if they're all very much on the same page: Impressive cohesion. (8.875/10)

3. "Chaosmongers" (4:39) after a brief and interesting little introduction, the band shifts into Drive and takes us through a very-punk-reminiscent song--until, that is, the 1:35 mark when it sounds like The early Who pumped on amphetamines. The guitarist is again very impressive--even when he's double tracked in the instrumental solo section. And, again: the band's unity is quite astonishing. (8.875/10)

4. "Technocratic Manipulators" (4:35) more subdued Helno-like vocals from Denis Bélanger over some technically impressive music. Again, the guitarist (Denis d'Amour) is quite impressive (not that bassist Jean-Yves Thériault and drummer Michel Langevin are not). (8.875/10)

- Epilog : 5. "Macrosolutions to Megaproblems" (5:33) another surprisingly accessible musical foundation over which some interesting CLASH- and LES NEGRESSE VERTES-like group choral shouts pepper Snake's almost-as-calm-as-David Bowie vocal. The punk style and ethic is still so very much alive in Snake's vocal styling. Cool and even inventive. (9/10)

6. "Brain Scan" (5:08) a fairly simple yet hard-driving background over which Snake calmly talk-sings in a lower register. Then he ramps up to his usual punk half-shout, but then the band turns down a fairly demanding terrain--one that has many little bumps and obstacles that demand full concentration and coordination. With all these shifts and changes one almost loses touch with Snake's performance. Fascinating! Denis "Piggy" d'Amour is definitely one creative guitarist! (8.875/10)

7. "Psychic Vacuum" (3:49) opening with Piggy's guitar already screaming chords from its high registers over the fast-driving rhythm section, the music shifts and morphs through several cycles of several motifs while Snake performs in his most Helno voice style. (8.75/10)

8. "Cosmic Drama" (4:54) back to a simpler, more Sabbath-like aural field while Snake punk-rocks his vocal performance; there's even quite a little theatric "devil"ishness in his performance. The music morphs in and out of several time signatures and some interesting stylistic motifs with a weird "bass" sound expressing a bit of low end drama in the fifth minute. (9.25/10)

9. "Batman" (1:45) using a metal treatment of a Dick Dale version of the famous theme, Snake stays pretty true to the original vocal melody--until the very end when he screams our hero's name. (4.75/5)

Total Time: 41:25

The two things I find most remarkable with this album (after their previous album, Killing Technology) are the fairly accessible musical foundations and the change in Denis "Snake" Bélanger's vocal style (less Joe Strummer than before). While the rhythm section shows remarkable cohesion, it is in Denis "Piggy" d'Amour's guitar phrasing and song-travel routes that I see the most progress. He is definitely exploring terrains and textural flows that no man (that I know of) has explored before. Otherwise, I find myself surprised that the "walls of sound" created by the band are still very much founded in sounds and works of past musics (Sabbath, The Clash, punk rock) and that the ear- and bone-crushing tech metal soundscapes have not yet fully taken over. Right now, it's more the adventurous creativity of lead guitarist Denis "Piggy" d'Amour that continues to propel the band into new dimensions. Tech/Extreme Metal is still not here.

B+/4.5 stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you're interested in the historical progression of the metal scene toward/into Tech/Extreme Metal.