V - THE NEW MYTHOLOGY SUITE

Metal is not my cup of tea. Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan melting my brain is just not my idea of musical enjoyment. Granted, I can appreciate the exceptional technical skill of these guys--especially the keyboard and lead guitar player--and I understand the lyrical effort going into the concept album--and, damn! everybody is trying hard, working very hard together, but I can't get past the voice of Darth--I mean, Russell Allen. It's a voice right out of the late 70s early 80s. Foreigner. Survivor. Ozzy. 707. 38 Special. Maiden. Loverboy. Leppard. DIO. And too many others to count. They all had that voice, that same voice. And I'm still not sure of the perceived need for constant thrashing of power chords and the gattling gun pounding of the bass/kick drum. Nice "operatic" setting . . . that cannot conceal/hide the pervasive Foreigner vocal sound. The guitar soli too often sound like Jan Hammer playing one- handed on his mobile, strap-on keyboard. Show. Can't rate it 4 stars cuz I can't quite accept metal power chords and rapid-fire kick drums into the prog sphere. IMHO, all metal thrash music should be kept unto itself. There I said it. I keep giving it chance after chance but it just doesn't sound like the kind of music that is exalting the human spirit to its highest heights of creative expression. Leprous, Opeth, Edge of Sanity, Unexpect, even Devin Townsend and some of Toby Driver's stuff grates me though this is the crème de la crème of prog metal. Genius, technically virtuosic, spiritually lacking. It would be interesting to do water crystallization experiments à la Masaro Emoto using music from each of these artists. Would plants thrive or die? Symphony X v. Mozart; Unexpect v. Enya; Devin v. ambient Eno; Kayo Dot Coyote v. The Lamb; Crimson (Edge of Sanity) v. Metheny. I think we have the makings of a new World Cup here!