ORBITAL

I actually borrow the unmastered sample of this album from a Salomon Lerner's friend, and I had the chance of meeting the guitarist (I think it was Dario Sosa) who also happened to play at a wedding gig with my dad, so let's say I'm a bit familiar with them. You may suppose that as a fellow venezuelan I would give them plain 5 stars. First of all, I'm not a nationalist so I don't feel warmhearted by nationality alone or by the fact that I've met some of them. This is a fine work, probably the best rock album that has been produced in my country in a long time, but still it leaves me a bit disgusted. It has more influence from Dream Theater than I can swallow, but still, while I just rate 1 star to virtually every album that Dream Theater has produced (or 2 stars at the most), this certainly deserves better, as it is, in my opinion, the improved version of DT. They still founded their sound with Dream Theater, but added a bit more of Yes, Genesis, some ELP and, especially, there's a great resemblace to Steve Hackett's "Spectral Mornings" style (and if you listen carefully, you will hear a reworked version of Hackett's "Every Day" main guitar riff on "Awaken From Reality").

The musicians are as good technically as Petrucci, Myung, Portnoy and Rudess. However, their focus is not in showing their technicality but in the compositions and arrangements, and that's where they BLOW DREAM THEATER. The songs are still filled with power chords, whilst not so frecuently, so the songs are much smoother and soft- edged, with a balance of acoustic and electric passages. I will not get to review the individual song one by one, because every song has it's charm, so the whole album is very listenable without giving a headache. I just have trouble with two other things: the amount of power chords (again not as much as DT, but still a lot, considering that this is categorized as Symphonic prog) and Lidian's vocals: I don't know if it is because he is not plain american or english, so the pronunciation is not perfect (not a thing to blame... he's venezuelan), thus the singing lacks dynamics and appeals soulless; or, it just lacks dynamics and appeals soulless itself without regards of the pronunciation; his voice is a mix of LaBrie with Jon Anderson, only with lack of colour,and although he has a nice vibrato, I guess he's just not my type of vocalist.

Even with those low points, this album is 3.5 stars, rounded to 4. It's a great addition to fans of old-fashioned symphonic prog with modern touches.

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