Prog4you.com - Progressive Rock Review

O.K. I must admit that when I first saw names like Neil Murray and Don Airey, I imagined that this could be a very interesting CD. For those of you who are either too young or too old to care, these two have been involved with a lot of the hard rock "giants", such as Black Sabbath and Rainbow, which means they have actually had the opportunity to work in professional recording studios, outside of the prog home recording underground. I was curious to see what they would bring to a prog album, but I was really disappointed!

The fact is that this album is as prog as Def Leppard or MSG (the band, featuring Michael Shenker on guitar, and not that ubiquitous ingredient in Chinese sweet and sour roadkill...). In fact, Empire actually resembles MSG somewhat, or at least it sounds a bit like the few things by them I have heard. Although the album isn't prog, and may therefore perplex some of the readers who visit prog4you, I should comment on the distinctive work of guitarist Rolf Munkes, which in my opinion is the true highlight here; this guy has a guitar tone somewhat similar to Eric Johnson's, but obviously layered with more distortion and beef, and he is a tasty player in his own right. He does not leave anything to chance, and presents us with carefully arranged parts and interesting, fluid phrases that I personally enjoyed greatly.

Otherwise, the album is exactly what you would expect to hear from a late 80's metal outfit, i.e. big, high-pitched vocals served on a harmonic bed of sweet corn with extra cheese. It's very professional and well performed, but at the end of the day, the gloss can't hide the fact that the lyrics are formulaic, and overall "Hypnotica" is quite predictable, down to the length of the verses and choruses and use of the obligatory power ballad. To be fair, unlike most of the albums from that era in this case the drums actually sound good, perhaps because they are not hammered with as many triggers, and the bass is actually well played and audible in the mix. You know what I mean. If you can name a single 80's metal rhythm section that wasn't ridiculously buried in the final version of an album (besides Iron Maiden's and Queensryche's), I'll buy you a Guinness.

If 80's metal is your bag, by all means get a hold of this disc. But frankly, most proggers and lovers of more elaborate music will probably find little of interest here.

Go to lion music's website and see for yourself if this release will
hypnotize you or not. http://www.lionmusic.com/index2.htm

Rating: 6 keyboards
Reviewed by: Luis Nasser

Review Date: 02/08/02

Discography

Hypnotica - 2001
Trading Souls - 2003