THE PROGRESSIVE SOULS COLLECTIVE: Sonic Birth (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

The Progressive Souls Collective is not a band but a project, the one of the German guitarist Florian Zepf, who in 2017 decided to compose a progressive metal album, "Sonic Birth". No one knows where he got his address book from, but it is clear that he has gathered an impressive casting: Aquiles Priester (ex-Angra) on drums, Derek Sherinian (Sons Of Apollo, ex-Dream Theater) on keyboards, Conner Green (Haken) on bass, Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater) on programming, Vladimir Lalic (Organized Chaos) on vocals. So we are not far from the supergroup, even if the collective term is more appropriate to qualify The Progressive Souls Collective.

Indeed, the album is very well produced (even overproduced at times, considering the sound density of some tracks) but it often lacks group spirit to be able to carry away the adhesion, notably because of Derek Sherinian's keyboards which invade all the tracks to the point of drowning some guitar and bass parts under a deluge of all kinds of style effects. This is the main trademark of "Sonic Birth": riffs at the service of the keyboards. This gives rise to undeniable successes ('Hurt' and its almost djent rhythmic) and to failures, like the epic 'Destiny Inc' which has a hard time keeping us in suspense for 15 minutes as its experimental mess lacks interest.

Nevertheless, The Progressive Souls Collective tries some interesting and original things in progressive metal, especially by using instruments rarely present in this musical genre, like the harmonica ('Metature') and the percussions ('Killing True Beliefs') provided by Louis Conte, Phil Collins' percussionist. But to bet too much on the eclecticism, the collective comes to lose the listener on the way with titles like 'You And Me Alone', ballad more inspired by an old album of Clanad than the codes of the progressive metal.

And then there is Vladimir Lalic's high-pitched vocals. His vocal prowess often flirts with the limit of the bearable so much the singer pushes in his ultimate retrenchments his counter-tenor performance ('Fractional Emotion', 'A Formula For Happiness').

"Sonic Birth" is therefore a rather strange album, not knowing how to choose between classic progressive metal and hazardous experimentations and often lacking cohesion, both between the tracks and between the musicians. It's a pity, but in music as in sports, a meeting of stars is not enough to make a collective. - Official website

THE PROGRESSIVE SOULS COLLECTIVE

SONIC BIRTH

METALVILLE

PROGRESSIVE METAL