SHADES OF FATE

I wonder about the people who are obsessed with Prog Metal.Because I think this genre does not vary enough to be obsessed with. I have listened to prog metal for 3-4 years now, I can easily say most of the bands imitate the ideas of Dream Theater. Dream Theater formed those ideas on the ideas of Rush. God knows where Rush got them. But for me, this genre is one filthy child of many possible fathers.

A new band from Germany, Effloresce, is a progressive metal band with female vocals. Featuring 3 songs, all of them over 8 mins, this EP is kind of a weird experience for me. I won't go that far to call them copycats. I think they're trying hard to make something original. Let me talk about each song and you decide:

Birds of Prey: This song immidiately brings Dream Theater to mind. The length is over 10 minutes and I really enjoy the general composition. The things that make this song seperable from Dream Theater are the vocals and some solos. I think the musicians have their own style of playing, instead of just imitating Dream Theater.Yet some melodies and phrases remind Dream Theater a lot. I like the ending with fade-out though.

Sear: Now we're listening to Opeth. Opeth is a damned band, when a fan of this band writes and plays music, the listener can easily feel the Opeth inside if the musician is not careful enough. The vocal lady presents some growls here, which I really don't like. It sounds like a dying squirrel to me, no offense though.

Sunset In the Snowdome: Since we listened to the major influences(Dream Theater, Opeth) mix them together to make something better. The flutes are nice. I like the mellow parts.

Composition and instrumentation-wise, this band is very strong and promising. So you gotta give them credit. These people obviously love what they do. Possibly and hopefully they can record an album full of original ideas in the future. The biggest mistake they would make is to depend on already used 1000 times ideas. They have a big potential to get much better. They will release their debut LP soon, mixed and produced by Dan Swanö. I'm pretty excited about that.