CORE

The band´s debut album Truth Inside the Shades (2004) showed an adventurous approach to writing music, but Core takes the band´s many great ideas even further. The 70 minute album consists of only 3 tracks that each exceed 20 minutes. All 3 tracks are very complex in structure and filled with challenging playing, tempo- and time signature changes and a generally intricate approach to songwriting. The music is still very keyboard/ synth heavy but while Dream Theater and Symphony X are still a very obvious influences, the music on Core is also influenced by both melodic black and melodic death metal. I´m reminded of both Opeth and especially Edge of Sanity at times. The riffing is generally heavier and more raw than on most progressive metal releases but it´s the vocals that make comparisons to harder edged genres valid. The main vocal approach is raspy but there are growling and clean vocals in the music too. In addition to those vocal styles there are some female vocals in the music too that reminds me a bit of Anneke van Giersbergen ( The Gathering). The female vocals give the music a goth metal elements in addition to the many other styles represented on the album. There´s a nice development in the songs, and even though there are many different sections and riffs in each song, there´s a coherence between the sections which means that nothing seem awkwardly placed. That´s a rare achivement in songs this long.

The production on Core is much better than the sound on Truth Inside the Shades, but there is still room for improvement in that department. I still think the keyboards a bit too high in the mix.

Core is an excellent progressive metal album, and while there are things on the album that I´m not too fond of ( the production could have been better), it´s seldom that I´m entertained all the way through a 70 minute long album, like it´s the case here. A 4 star rating is deserved. Core is very recommendable to fans of epic progressive metal who can tolerate extreme vocals.

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