|
With two guitars in the line-up this
new Belgian band mentions Dream Theater as their major inspiration
but upon listening to their debut album (still a demo as I write
this piece) their musical scope goes a lot further than that.
Although having a female leadsinger Panopticum nevertheless choses
to open this album with an instrumental track. Not directly the best
marketing strategy as obviously you need an ‘in-your-face’ opening
track containig all the bandmembers however most certainly a perfect
illustration that the technical abilities are strongly available
whilst the band also is interested to lay down true ‘atmospheres’.
For sure the sound of the guitars get the upperhand but the synths
are equally present in the mix. This is not the only instrumental
track on this album as the two closing pieces are also non-vocal. So
it’s as if these instrumental compositions act like bookends in
between which all of the vocal tracks are trapped.
‘Where does it lead to’ most certainly
begins very promissing with great melodies and ace playing from
everyone involved. The vocals however don’t really deliver the kind
of approach I was expecting to hear as the vocal melody is a tad
difficult within the entire concept. On top of that the female
vocals are backed by male backing vocals which personally I would
only have used during the chorus. Dieter’s intervention on piano
suddenly steers the song in a slightly different direction
containing some Rhapsody references. Dieter, who is a huge fan of
Jordan Rudess and also a member of Karma Depth, is a great asset to
this band as his parts blend ever so well with the rest of the
band’s original compositions. The multi-layers of synths in ‘The
angel and it’s drawing’ extra underline the dramatics here whilst I
invite everyone to closely listen to the inventive drumming as well.
This composition most certainly contains loads of authentic Dream
Theater elements resulting in a most interesting and professional
song. During ‘The chaos in between’ both guitars play the scales
together kind of what Wishbone Ash used to do at times but it’s once
again Dieter’s piano section which opens other possibilities for
this song introducing fusion-like guitarsolo’s.
‘Between us’ tries to combine two
different sides of Panopticum as on one side you get a more
accessible, more rocky side as opposed to the pure progressive
direction. Again it strikes me how the vocals are rather bland here
as I’m convinced Shari is capable to do much more with her voice. I
really don’t know how the compositions come to be but surely her
range should be much wider in order to fully fit within the musical
concept of the band. I mainly miss emotions in her singing which is
a very important part of the whole idea. I’m not saying she doesn’t
sing well, all I want to say is that this band is capable of much
more but then again Dream Theater didn’t start out with their best
line-up either ! Just listen to the intro for ‘Say no more’ which
could sound exactly like Yes if only the harmonies would be arranged
properly. Once again Dieter’s Rudess impersonation puts a very
important mark on the music whilst a lot of rhythm changes put a
decent amount of spice into this one. One of my favourites on this
debut album most certainly has to be ‘Restless’ as it’s as if Jordan
Rudess and John Petrucci have stepped in to guest !
As
said before the album closes with two instrumentals. The first,
‘Delirium’ contains bits of dialogue from a movie in order to
enhance the drama within the piece. Again it contains all the
elements to keep it interesting throughout ranging from
accessability to fluent improvisation with the technical high
standards as a constant factor. Sadly the end becomes a bit of a
hickup as it sounds like there was no real end. With ‘The day after’
Panopticum ends with the absolute highlight of this album. Again
this piece could well be pulled from one of both Liquid Tension
Experiment albums as it’s that good. Dieter mainly continues to play
the same loop on piano whilst the guitar adds that very memorable
melody. Thumbs up for this superb release with as a small criticism
the fact that more work has to be done regarding the vocals. Maybe
the addition of an external producer could do wonders here as most
certainly the potential is there to deliver world class music with
their follow up. With Panopticum Belgium adds yet another important
name to it’s ever growing roster of prog bands. How good it feels to
be Belgian these days ! |
