So far, so good…
Released on 4 February 2017 and reviewed by Angie K
They are new, ambitious and have chosen a difficult genre to get into: progressive metal. Construct’s debut album The Deity is an effort worth listening to and it does their home town, Stoke-on-Trent, proud.
The Deity starts off with a powerful speedy guitar intro which, added to the more serious shredding further into the opening tract ‘When Conscious Calls’ and its guitar solos, doesn’t fail to remind you of the Scandinavian power metal gods (Yngwie Malmsteen and the myriad of his followers). The vocal work, not surprisingly, is a combination of hoarse death metal roaring and multi-layered harmonic choruses of clear vocals. This would perhaps tick the prog metal boxes, as well as the melodic harmonies taking turns with shredding hardcore rhythm in ‘Coalescence’: This kind of opening solos is very typically power metal and features in some other tracks (for instance, ‘Whole Again’).
‘The Molecular Level’ is a track that sounds typically progressive with its crystal clear intro, slow shredding rhythm and references to the early Stratovarius, sounding desperate, scary and lonely. Other than the obviously sought-for progressive layer of the album, there is also a thrash metal dimension that is very clearly pronounced. A good example of this is ‘Justify The Means’, where the thrash line is at times being briefly interrupted by angelic vocal choruses and curvy classical guitar solos. A similar type of composition can be observed in the angry and powerful ‘Devil Inside’, again varied with softer episodes of harmonies.
‘Reflection’ is an interesting track that demonstrates Construct’s ambition to make it big and prog. Multi-layered, a bit too cluttered and too busy, it is overall a good effort. This is not an easy genre, and certainly with all its monsters it is a challenge for a newly rising band to find their unique place under the sun. For the remainder of the album, there are surprises to be had. The tracks that I would select as the best ones are the last two. ‘Forgotten’ with its riffs and the classical guitar work is a fine progressive rock ballad (think Rush, Mike Oldfield, Asia), a beautiful piece and definitely my favourite from the CD.
And there is a reason why ‘The Deity’ has been chosen as a title track. The rhythm of the song is interesting, it is my type of classic rock track (think Rainbow’s ‘Gates of Babylon’), but also sounds very prog. The vocals, however, somehow do not stand out too significantly, they sound a bit like backing vocals. The song finishes nearly unexpectedly and abruptly with angelic soaring vocals. Beautiful song which is clearly the highlight of the album.
Their music is an amalgamation of various metal styles and at times it feels like they have embarked upon an experiment that may be a bit too challenging for them (so far). They do, however, have the potential to make it into “proper” prog, should they really want to, but is it an advantage to fit into a box? Not necessarily.
7 out of 10
Track list:
- When Conscience Calls
- Coalescence
- The Molecular Level
- Justify The Means
- Devil Inside
- Reflection
- Whole Again
- Riding Through
- Opposing Force
- The Deity
- Forgotten
