COGNITION

SACRUM is the first progressive-metal band from Argentina I've ever listened to, and the results have been a mixed bag.

On one hand, the musicianship is tremendous, the band members are all very skilled in their instruments. Especially the guitar player and the drummer captured my ear with their precision and speed. There's no question that, at that level, this band can stand toe-to-toe with the best of them, including prog-metal monsters from the Old World or from North America. The recording is spot-on, something that usually is not perfect with South-american recordings (I'm South American, that's why I say this). Actually, if this cd had been released under an international label like Inside Out, nobody would've ever noticed is from a country with a relatively new prog-metal tradition as Argentina, so great are the musicians and the production.

The problem (and that has nothing to do with nationality, as most clones come from Europe or from the US) is that the music is not very original. What we get here is a band that follows the tradition of legends like DREAM THEATER or FATES WARNING almost to a point of sounding like a clone. The song structures, the kind of riffs, rhythms and sudden changes, all of that comes directly from the school of DT, even the sound of the instruments has been molded with the sound of the New York outfit in mind. On the other hand, the singer sounds like Ray Alder from FATES WARNING to a degree where at times you can easily think the guy is actually the legendary band's vocalist. While that's not per-se a bad thing (Alder is good, as I've come to appreciate now), what is not so great is when both the music and the vocals sound a little too familiar. That speaks of lack of originality and uniqueness.

All in all, a band with lots and lots of potential that has to find its own voice. The elements are there, at times one can hear a unique band beneath the layers of influence. But work has to be done, and Cognition is nothing more than a good, entertaning, but ultimately forgetable album.

Hailing from Argentina, Sacrum has made an interesting full length debut album here.

Progressive metal is the name of the game here, and although it is a genre pretty exhausted in terms of making unique material, these guys manage to at least add in some details now and then that aren't overly much used. The general sound and atmosphere on many tunes do sound quite influenced by the great band of the genre, Dream Theater. Especially some of the tunes in the second half of the CD.

But some inventive use of atmospheric passages, riff patterns that owe just as much to Metallica and Megadeth, as well as the black metal and folk tinged tune Sacrum shows that this band may have more up their sleeve if they continue to evolve.

Quite a few groovy tunes here, and about just as many that sound good without being standout in any way. Worth checking out by fans of the genre, but not an album that will find many fans outside of it.