WORLD OF GREY

With their latest album "World of Grey", Aurora Project shift their sound yet again, this time to lighten the load by taking some happier influences by more symphonic prog outfits like Rocket Scientists and Spock's Beard, but all in all, its business as usual.

"Expect Us" is once again vocal driven, and the instrumental sections are once again repetitive and lack any real excitement. "Warmongers" also starts with a soft intro, again showing a shift away from Dream Theater esque stylings and veering more toward symphonic and neo prog influences, but is a few minutes too long. There is a nice jazz-blues guitar solo towards the end, but it feels lost amidst the once again stifling vocals.

The same story repeats itself throughout the album, like previous albums. "Stone Eagle" lumbers along in an unimaginative chord progression. "Deadly Embrace" has some nice instrumental sections in the middle, but are once again stifled by the bland symphonic staple chord synth and the still unimaginative and stifling vocals. "Mediapuppets" is alright, a summary of the band's sound in a digestible 4:47. "World of Grey" sounds like DT chords meet Opeth droning and drama, "Circles in the Water" adds some Pink Floyd harmonics and atmosphere with Porcupine Tree esque textures before finally emerging into a triumphant chorus at the end while "Dronewars" is just another uninspiring track filled with the same sounds as before.

That's basically all she wrote. In listening to their albums, all of them sound virtually the same, even though the influences change from each album. The same sounds and style and the same influences just make each song sound the same, and with nothing interesting popping out, the entire band's discography just seems average, which is a shame considering the musical ability of the band is immense, when they get a chance to shine, but with the singer with an unbearable, overwhelming presence on every song, you don't get any of that. Now that would be fine if the singer commanded a stage presence, or had a flair for the dramatic, but nothing about his voice interests me. In fact, after listening to the band's discography, I'd be fine if I never heard his voice again, I wouldn't be missing anything.

It's a harsh conclusion, but this goes to show what happens in a genre of ever changing development and progression. If you don't bring something new to the table every time and have some key element or factor in your sound, you'll end up swimming in the sea of mediocrity and end up getting lost amidst the tide.

I guess this is what the phrase "the more things change, the more they stay the same" means.