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: : The
Journey : :
Khallice is a Brazilian prog metal band, originally formed back in 1994.
"The Journey" is their debut album, first released in 2003, and now
re-released worldwide after the band signed to the Magna Carta label. The
re-released version of the album comes with one bonus track (Stuck). In
addition, you can download another bonus track (Madman Lullaby) if you
visit the bands homepage.
Musically, Dream
Theater is a clear inspiration for the band. Most tracks contain parts
with distinct Dream Theater flavouring, especially from how the prog
metal greats sounded on "Images and Words" and "Awake".
Khallice do have
other influences as well though. You'll be able to hear hair metal
influences, some Rush influences as well as touches of Iron Maiden along
the way. There are also touches of jazz and fusion to be found in most
of tracks here, as well as keyboard work with a distinct 70's touch to
them.
All of those
influences put together could make for a killer record, but not in this
case.
The most
frustrating aspect of this release is that the songs wander all over the
place. Most songs are built up on a plethora of small parts, where
excellent sounding parts that you hum along to are left after much to
short time for something else. And often for something not as good. And
as another excellent part in the songs comes into play, the same thing
happens again. And again.
This ceaseless
wandering in the tracks makes it hard to get a good feel for the
individual songs, as all the parts mixed together results in songs with
a distinct lack of identity. That the individual parts of each song can
have extreme variations in sound and mood does not help building an
identity either.
The end result
here is that I get the feel that this is a band in search of an identity
of their own, and a band without the ability or skill to really hear
what parts of each songs are good enough and catchy enough to explore
further, and what parts are better to scrap. In short - a lack of
songwriting and song structure ability.
The musicianship
is excellent though, so if listening to good musicians are more
important to you than listening to good songs as such this one should be
checked out.
Unless you're into
vocals that is. The vocalist in Khallice do have a good voice and good
range, and sounds a bit like a mix of Bruce Dickinson and James LaBrie.
But without the control and restraint those two utilize, resulting in
vocals that at times end up in generic heavy metal howling as they did
it back in the 80's.
Now, if these guys
can harness their individual talents a bit and develop as songwriters,
their next release could be a very interesting effort. This one however,
is a tad on the weak side overall.
Rating: 6 (out of
10)
Reviewer: Olav Björnsen
: : Visit the Artist’s
Website :
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: : Discography : :
The Journey (2007) |
