In a successful cooking recipe, you obviously need good ingredients and, even if you have some, it is necessarily necessary to have the right helping hand to achieve it. This is no doubt what the Australian 'Glen McMaster' said to himself who does not, strictly speaking, have a huge business card but who wrote and composed an album that takes us on a journey between rock and progressive metal in through the ages: those are the right ingredients. And the helping hand, you might say: our creator of this 'Figure Of Speechless' project simply called on the cream of progressive artists and, excuse me, we find keyboardist 'Derek Sherinian', guitarist 'Ron Bumblefoot Thal' (both now part of, among others, the very good progressive metal band 'Sons Of Apollo'), singer 'Ray Alder' (ex 'Redemption', 'Fates Warning' and his latest project 'A-Z') and, as 'Mike Portnoy' was certainly not free (lol), he fell back on 'Brian Tichy' who is also a drum breaker with a cv as long as a day without bread (among others 'Foreigner', 'Dead Saisies', 'Billy Idol', 'Derek Sherinian', 'Whitesnake' and so on).
We are welcomed by 'Day And Night' (see the video above), between rock and metal, which takes us on an original progressive journey with catchy melodic lines that we could compare to those of 'Threshold' which will be released an album soon. Follows, in a similar register, the no less melodic 'Carve a Smile' in which 'Ray Alder' shows all his vocal talent in a more moderate atmosphere and in which 'Derek Sherinian' and 'Bumblefoot' follow one another in a beautiful instrumental section, then, we continue in this first part of the album, focused on melodic titles, with the two mid-tempo 'Escape Hatch' and 'Midnight Desert Rendezvous' which can be tasted with pleasure and which are both very catchy from the first listen, an atmosphere that can also be found in the title song that follows (see video here). The following composition 'The Cast-Out' shows a slightly orientalised face which brings additional originality and the instrumental part in the second part of the title is magnificent, then, 'Draw the Line' continues in lighter and catchy progressive rock with some variation well-placed rhythms so as not to make the whole thing too linear. Change of atmosphere with 'Inside Room 6' (see video here) which is much darker and in which 'Ray Alder' goes remarkably from a calm vocal register to a much more impetuous song, then, back to a more moderate atmosphere with 'Turn A New Leaf' but which hardens the subject in a final much more energetic which shows the diversity of the atmospheres developed by 'Glen McMaster' in this album. And it is by the melodic 'DysUtopia' in which 'Derek Sherinian' offers us a masterful solo of keyboards and by the bucolic semi-acoustic atmosphere of Unfolding' with a last magic solo of 'Bumblefoot' that this opus ends in beauty.
In summary, 'Glen McMaster' shows all his talent as a composer in this first album of his project 'Figure Of Speechless' and, thanks to talented artists, transforms this 'Tunnel at the End of the Light' into a total success which should mark the year 2022 in the field of rock and melodic progressive metal... | |
