KONOM

I wasn't super fond on this album at first, but something about it made me try it out a few times with background listening after my initial headphone listen. Then the vocals really started to grab my attention more and more which made me forget about some aspects of the poppier metal portions that I'm not interested in.

This guy, Arya Bobaie, can really sing! Great range. He reminds me of so many great singers at different points and has some vocal theatrics at times reminiscent of Matthew Parmeter (Discipline).

Allowing the vocals to keep me interested, I got a few reps of the music and grew to appreciate it quite a bit. The music gets more proggy as it goes.

At many points I think to myself that this is how Dream Theatre could sound with my kind of vocalist. Speaking of Dream Theatre, their guitarist, Dan White has a real John Petrucci style at times. Very strong. When not in DM mode, it's still quite good too. I have thoughts of Porcupine Tree at times too, and Discipline at times. They certainly combine it all to make a good sound of their own.

This one is a grower I guess, although maybe not aggressive enough for some.

Did I mention the vocals on this album!!

I was going to give this a 4, but considering this really, really good production is a debut album, I'm going to give it a 4.5, rounded up to a 5.