PRIMAL POWER ADDICTION

Primal Power Addiction is the second studio album from Canadian ( Montreal) progressive metal act Heaven´s Cry. I´ve just recently heard this bands music for the first time even though I ´ve known the name for a couple of years. I was really impressed with the Heaven´s Cry debut album called Food For Thought Substitute and awarded that one with a big 4 star rating. A truly unique and challenging progressive metal album. Heaven´s Cry really has an original style even though their music falls under the ( many times IMO generic) progressive metal catagory. This band is different and they really deserve much more attention than they have gotten so far on PA.

The music is different first and foremost because of the limited use of keyboards on the album. The band has three guitarists instead and it shows in the music. There are lots of intriguing interplay between the guitars and they generally compliment each other extremely well. It´s not unlike the way Jim Matheos and Frank Aresti from Fates Warning compliment each other on Perfect Symmetry, Parallels and Inside Out. There is almost always an electric guitar without distortion at play at the same time as distorted riffing is going on. Besides the obvious influence from Fates Warning I will also mention bands like Psychotic Waltz ( Mosquito), Queensrÿche ( Promised Land), Extreme ( Three Sides to Every Story) and to a lesser degree Alice in Chains ( Facelift) as influences. The last two are mentioned because there is a distinct hard rock/ metal influence in the music. There is also a very obvious funk influence in the rythm which is kind of odd for a progressive metal band but it all adds up to a very unique sound. Thankfully Heaven´s Cry are as far from Dream Theater as they can come which is such a relief. Personally I´m sick and tired of progressive metal bands trying to ape the masters and I always welcome any band in that genre who has a personal sound.

There are several high quality songs on the album and in fact I can´t chose one song I think is below average on Primal Power Addiction. The melodic A New Paradigm, The aggressive Komma, the progressive A Higher Moral Ground ( What are they doing with the guitars in that song?), the power ballad Remembrance and the beautiful The Inner Stream Remains. I could go on but the conclusion is that all songs on the album are strong and original progressive metal tunes. The album ends with a cover of Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil and even though it´s an odd choice for a cover song I think it´s done pretty well. It´s actually enjoyable to some level.

The T said something in his review of Primal Power Addiction that I think is important. It has to do with the melody lines which are not easily accessible and even after a number of listens they might not seem very memorable. This is a point in Heaven´s Cry´s music that is very much an aquired taste. Personally I love the melody lines because they are inaccessible and different. To me this means that I can listen to this album and not get bored after a couple of spins and after many spins the melody lines have opened up for me and given the music another dimension which is just fantastic IMO. But beware that you might not feel that way. If you prefer music with easily accessible and memorable melody lines this might be somewhat of a turn-off. I think most people will enjoy the high quality instrumental arrangements even though they might agree with The T that the melody lines are not that memorable. A typical case of aquired taste.

The musicianship is outstanding. The interplay between the musicians is so colourful and intriguing. I´m really impressed here. What an adventurous bunch.

The production is much more compact than on the debut which had a somewhat flawed yet enjoyable sound. A really impressive production IMO.

Primal Power Addiction is an excellent progressive metal album that is close to being a masterpiece IMO. I have to give it the test of time though before I decide wether or not this one deserves a 5 star rating but it´s certainly a BIG 4 star rating that I´ll give the album. Primal Power Addiction is highly recommendable to fans of challenging and different progressive metal.