Days Of Ruin – Awakenings.
Thanks to the bass player Dan for the CD. Actually
bass player is selling him somewhat short as he is also responsible
for the engineering, mixing and mastering. Spreading himself too
thin or master of all trades?
- Sleep Pattern. Piano led acoustic opening.
Electronic keyboards and then rest of the band are introduced
as the intro builds preceding...
- Awakening. Choppy guitar work leads into
cracking opening riff. There's a lot going on here as the
track unwinds in a modern prog way with clean vocals. Complex
structure, well handled. Clean vocals throughout. Most reminded
me of Dream Theater's “Endless Sacrifice”.
- Only Human. More restrained start before
crunchy guitar joins in the fun. Vocals in the slower sections
were weak and irritated me. Faster sections are fine though.
Sounds like prog meets Rage Against The Machine.
- Broken Beliefs. Vocal sample to start before
a very intricate riff kicks in. This one's ok not much more,
nothing inherently wrong with it, just nothing that distinctive
either.
- What Lies Beneath. Quiet intro again, prog
meets stadium rock this time. Guitar work is passable although
could be more inventive. The solo in the bridge could be far
more explosive. Had a feeling this one was going to unleash
at any moment, but it doesn't in the manner I'd expected.
As a huge Dream Theater fan a lot of this sounds
familiar, although they do inject their own character throughout.
Production is fine as far as the individual instruments go, I
feel it could be a little more punchy overall, sounds a bit flat
really. Promising CD though, it will be interesting to see how
this works live.
