I AM ANONYMOUS

Calling their debut full-length I Am Anonymous is a ballsy move on the part of Headspace, particularly since progressive metal is a reasonably crowded field with an audience hungry for novelty - had they released an album a little too generic and derivative of pioneers in the style, they'd have written their own epitaph with the title. As it stands, the album does often sound rather... well... anonymous, with the prog metal checklist ticked off in rote fashion, but it's buoyed up somewhat by subtle, nuanced performances by Adam Wakeman on keyboards and Damian Wilson on vocals. From the paranoid refrain of "They know now!" on Stalled Armageddon onwards, it's clear that Wilson has a real knack for getting to the emotional core of a composition, whilst Wakeman manages to combined technically impressive keyboard work with a deft sense of when to seize the spotlight and when to give the other performers space to do their thing. Not a classic, but a good example of this sort of prog metal project, even if the title does cut a bit too close to home.

This album was eagerly awaited by many progheads, and with good reason. The line-up alone is enough to get anyone interested, and I tend to have a standard rule of thumb that anything that involves Damian Wilson is worth investigating. The first time I saw Damian on stage was a solo artist with an acoustic guitar opening up for Shadowland and Jadis at the Marquee on the Lurve Ambassadors tour a million years ago, and since then I have been lucky enough to catch him in concert with other groups and have most of his recorded output. To my poor abused ears one of Rick Wakeman's finest albums of his entire career is 'Out There', and who is the singer? Damian. But wait, there's more, who is the bassist? Lee Pomeroy. The Wakeman connection doesn't quite end there as drummer Richard Brooke has also played with Rick and is where he met the others. In fact you have to feel sorry for guitarist Pete Rinaldi as he is the only who hasn't played with Rick ? but at least now he is playing with his son as the keyboard player is none other than Adam Wakeman, who has well as being known for playing with his father has been with Ozzy for the last eight years and I can remember interviewing him years ago when he had the band Jeronimo Road. Now who could have been the singer with that band? Oh yes, that would have been Damian. It's all very incestuous in the prog scene.

So given that we have world class musicians, songwriters, producers and singer would one expect an ordinary album? Of course not. Perhaps somewhat surprising is that the album is more metal oriented than one might expect with Adam's presence, but given than he plays with the price of darkness and Damian fronts Threshold maybe not quite as much after all. But it isn't all blasting guitars and riffs, one of the most effective songs is "Soldier" which is a poignant short number with Damian being accompanied mostly be gentle piano chords ? the use of a tolling bell in the background is simple yet incredibly effective, taking the song to a whole new level of emotion and atmosphere.

"Daddy Fucking Loves You' is based on a conversation that Damian had with a soldier, where the soldier told him of the time he was trying to describe to his young child why he had to go overseas and eventually he burst out with that statement in frustration. It is fifteen minutes long, and starts with gentle acoustic guitar and clear vocals, but it soon becomes a prog metal monster. The riffs sound as if they could have come from Fear Factory, not a prog act, and one can imagine a mosh pit going for this one ? until Lee and Pete decide that they are going to lock horns and provide a load of complexity not normally associated with industrial metal. Dischords and jagged edges as the song twists and turns means that this takes on a life of its' own as it cross musical boundaries and creates a huge statement. It has taken these guys five years to produce their first album, something to do with them all being busy on other projects, let's hope that it isn't as long until the next one as this is the beginning of an incredible musical journey. www.insideout.de

Headpsace is a young prog metal from UK but with veterans in prog rock and prog metal realms featuring here. Their first opus released in 2012 at Insideout label and named I am anonymus is a good towards great album, but I can't say is a groundbreaking album as many pretend to be. The cherry on the cake is for sure, at least to me thexcellent vocalist Damian Wilson, he has a super voice and fits perfectly here, also the keyboards of Adam Wakeman sounds pretty much ok, but nothing really impressive. The guitar is crunchy goes very much most of the time in prog metal territory with both mellow passages and more furious ones, each time Pete Rinaldi done a good job. The highlight is for sure, the opening track Stalled Armageddon, this pieces reminds me a lot of Threshold Extinct instinct era, both in manner of composing and aswell the voice of Wilson, a great prog metal tune with tempo changes, smooth passages and all ingredients to be a fairly solid track. The rest I can say are only ok, are good for sure, but nothing really excellent moments to my ears. Still a band to watch in the future they might come with a second offer as a nice surprise. 3 stars, maybe 3.5 in some parts.

Adam Wakeman: doesn't wear a cape, even though he is the son of Rick Wakeman; yes, that Rick Wakeman. With all the work Adam has been doing with Ozzy and Black Sabbath, somehow the last place I expected to see him releasing high quality material was in prog metal, and fine prog metal at that, even if it's not nearly symphonic enough to recall his father's work, although several reviewers have attempted to draw comparisons to his father's prog rock; there are none. Yet somehow, Headspace exceeded all my expectations. I, for one, get very bored with so-called prog metal releases, but this I Am Anonymous really hit the nail on the head. Wakeman managed to turn me from a doubter into a believer with smart compositions of epic length and a very special weapon: Damion Wilson.

Headspace's first full length album, I Am Anonymous mixes the best that Wakeman and Wilson have to offer. The tracks are tightly composed and lyrically ambitious, delivering an anti-war message that is both brutal and powerful. Overarching the individual songs are several sections that add loads of depth to the album through the perspective of a soldier and the ideology that he's fed. Apart from the lyrics themselves being brilliant and thorough, each of these overarching sections has a small bit of text that is crossed out, throwing the listener into the mental anguish of a soldier's struggle to cope with reality. Bottom line is that I Am Anonymous is a true lyrical gem, one which sucks you in and forces you to relate to what it's saying. There's actually so much text that you wonder how they are going to fit it into all the songs. Not only do they do so, but Damion's presentation of the lyrics is heartfelt and comprehensible, making the message accessible even without the presence of the album booklet.

What's great about Headspace's composition is that musically each track tells a story. Even without the gorgeous vocals of Mr. Damion Wilson, the songs themselves have a great sense of trajectory. Take "Fall of America," for example. It's large scale makes it possible to represent a number of moods, all of which do a majestic job at expressing the lyrics. The riffs are huge, in your face, and have tons of groove. At times Headspace breaks into hard rock territory, while there's other moments of fantastic dissonance with haunting keys and almost a polyrhythmic feel. The chorus is slow, doomy, and powerful. You can look at just about any track and find a similar story. This whole album is milks the ability to smoothly transitions you from exploding mortars to weeping for the dead as it pulls you in and out of harsh riffs and soulful ballads.

This is exactly why Damion Wilson, in my opinion, is the absolute perfect singer for this album. He knows how to be intense, he can sing his soul out on the soft parts, instilling the story with a sense of tragedy, and he can even be catchy and rhythmic, falling somewhere between a weird but clever feel half way between Tool and Porcupine Tree. His main strength, however, lies in his ability to interpret the lyrics. On "Soldier" he sounds so sorrowful that you are really asking yourself what you'll do when the war is over, hoping for a proper burial at home. The final track, "The Beginning," shows some brilliant, ethereal and uncanny vocal harmonies between Damion and members of the band, and the entire song is filled to the max with Damion delivering heartfelt lines heightened by gut wrenching lyrical beauty. I have heard this many in many bands and projects, and I must say that his vocal performances on Headspace take the cake; perhaps the finest work he's ever done as a whole.

These British boys certainly deliver both quality and quantity with their latest release, I Am Anonymous. This is an album that deserves thorough inspection, as it is getting better and better with every listen. When I first heard Damion with Rick Wakeman's New English Rock Ensemble, I thought it was a great combination. Little did I know that this Threshold legend of prog metal really was destined not for father, but for son. Adam sure found just the right group of musicians for this fantastic release. I wish them the best of luck and success in the future and am expecting more great releases in the future.