CONCEPT OF TIME - review added 17th June 2009
Album Review: A New State Of Thought EP (2009)
For fans of: Symphonic Metal... and death metal vs. keyboards
Concept Of Time is a Scottish 4-piece from Johnstone, just west of Glasgow. The line-up is Scott Mclean (keys and backing vocals), Tom Perett (lead vocals and guitars), Andy Marshall (bass) and Phillip Morrison (drums).
The guys list their influences as Therion, Evergrey, Pagan's Mind, Epica and bigger acts like Muse and Pink Floyd. Whilst you can certainly hear some of those bands in this work, there's a fair slab of originality going on too. The balance of horror-tinged/space-epic keyboards with death metal kick drums is phenomenally successful, as are most of Tom Perett's desperate sounding vocals. He comes across like a man in pain. Whether intentionally or not, that emotional torment adds immensely to the album's aura.
'Open Your Eyes' is a swift instrumental opening to the album. The first full track, the title track, follows. It starts with a bloody brilliant keyboard hook layered over a pounding drum section. The drums are so good they sound synthesised. If Phillip Morrison genuinely played them, hats off to the man. The song has a Celtic tinge and urgent vocals, although the guitar riffs are a tad lost. If the strings had been pushed forward in the mix this could have been a top track, even so it's only a gnats whisker from greatness.
'Nothing More Than A Memory is a decent effort, although it treads a fine line between brilliance and whining nonsense. This is going to be a subjective song and people's love of the track will entirely come down to what mood they are in at the time. There's no knocking the performances though. 'Eternal Sleep' is too much like the previous track. The choral section is brilliant, the remainder of the song could do with a re-jig to give it more individuality.
'Embrace The Lie (Apocalypse)' has a filmscore-styled piano sound that works well. It's a massive track that would sink seamlessly into a multi-million dollar video on MTV. It possibly goes on a bit, but it's still the finest and maddest track on the album.
Good EP this. There's hints at greatness, but the sound ultimately lacks direction at present. If they could put more work into differentiating individual songs and improving the overall mix and production, I'll look forward to hearing more from these guys.
Check out... The theatrical nature of the final track.
Track List:
01. Open Your Eyes
02. A New State Of Thought
03. Nothing More Than A Memory
04. Eternal Sleep
05. Embrace The Lie (Apocalypse)
Artist's website(s): MySpace
