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Suspyre - The silvery image 3/5

Reviewed: 12-30-05





Tracklist:

1. Sospirare
2. Father of hate
3. Distant skies
4. Waterburns
5. The breath of Gloria
6. Last of the survivors
7. Ascension
8. Apex
9. Serpent I am
10. The city under sands
11. I see
12. Seguirai


A lot of promising power metal bands have entered the genre in 2005 and I've been fortunate enough to have many of them come my way. Suspyre's 'The silvery image' is the most recent full-length debut I've obtained, and it's a perfect example of a CD that shows a good deal of promise. The band's style is power metal with some progressive and neo-classical elements, and although there are portions of the CD that are simply nothing special, there are some standout tracks that leave me quite impressed. I should mention that the band went through a few different line-up changes prior to the release of 'The silvery image', and most notably is the acquisition of vocalist Clay Barton, whose somewhat throaty vocals bare a close resemblence to Jiotis Parcharisis of Human Fortress and Euroforce.

With exception of 3 songs (the intro "Sospirare", an interlude "Ascension" and the outro "Seguirai"), the CD is filled with songs ranging from 5 to 7 minutes. There are many parts that are purely musical on a lot of the songs, so the lengths seem to be about right. In fact, the only real downside with the CD is quality and style consistency. Track 2 "Father of hate" (the first real song, which follows the earlier mentioned intro "Sospirare"), the keyboard-laden and memorable track 3 "Distant skies", and the melodic track 4 "Waterburns" are all strong power metal songs that make for an outstanding beginning. But there are more diverse songs that haven't clicked with me, and these occur mainly in the middle of the CD. Track 5 "The breath of Gloria", which is just a decent tempo-changing song that contains a poorly performed (or produced) saxophone solo (when compared to what I recall from Lanfear's amazing "Eternally" from 'Another golden rage'), track 6 "Last of the survivors", the earlier mentioned interlude "Ascension", track 8 "Apex" (where Clay surprising turns his voice into a yelling manner in a few spots, opposed to a singing one) and up to track 9 "Serpent I am". The CD has an awesome ending though, as the fast-paced track 10 "The city under sands" and track 11 "I see" blend together to create a high quality 11 minutes of pure power metal before we hit the earlier mentioned outro "Seguirai".

This is another one of those CDs that contains songs in the wide range of average to excellent and in an inconsistent style, but overall the CD leans more towards being recommended than one that is not. Suspyre proves they can write some great power metal songs, and at least half of 'The silvery image' does fall into the excellent portion. So definitely a promising band in my mind and I look forward to seeing (hearing) if they can live up to my expectations.



CLINT




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