A TRIBUTE TO LIFE

A Tribute to Life is from the Greek band Fragile Vastness. Fans of Pain of Salvation would do well to search this band out. They are not copies but are influenced by Pos. Metal passages with a double guitar assault are interspersed with many calmer parts and songs, many of them very beautiful. Some of these are piano driven but they also throw a Latin vibe into the mix from time to time. I heard a bit of the Far East in there as well with certain wind instruments. The world music is pretty limited but I point it out to tell of the different ideas these guys to the table with. They did not set out to make a straight ahead prog-metal album. The keyboards are not used just for atmosphere but are given space in many of the songs. The acoustic guitar is used very nicely. The singer has a resemblance to Daniel Gildenlow and has a good voice. The production is spot on. There are strings, bongos, clarinets, etc. and a host of guest singers and musicians to really make the whole effort a truly diverse offering.

This is a concept album and the band put a lot of effort into building a story. Whether that translates to your listening experience I guess depends on how closely you follow the lyrics. The second song is really just a spoken word piece but if you have a daughter (I have two), it will certainly have you welling up while it sets up the concept of the father with cancer. I won't get into the details as they have been outlined better elsewhere.

This is a double CD but they probably could have gotten it onto one. I don't say that because parts should have been deleted, rather, they stretched it out with some crazy bonus tracks. There are 47 of them on CD 2, most being 6 seconds of silence. There are a couple of songs (one a alternate version of Heart of a Lion) interspersed with some parts where they try and sound like an amateur radio station, introducing the bonus tracks. A bit frivolous and it makes for a weird ending after the heavy content of the album proper. Some listeners may want to skip these if they just want to listen to the concept album as is.

My CD came in a double gatefold with two booklets and some nice artwork. The lyrics are done as if they are a diary. The second booklet gives the details of the story. The type could have been a bit larger on this but it is well done and a "food for thought" kind of thing.

This is easily a four star album and Pos fanatics might bump it up to five. I am not a huge Pos freak so I can only go with four but with nary a gripe about the whole package. If you were put off by Scarsick and need some diverse Prog Metal and like concept albums, you should look to get this disk. Well done and if the band continues on, they have a bright future.