Blind Stare – “Symphony of Delusions”
Talk about biting on more than you can chew: upbeat, symphonic music with thrashy, power riffs, a pretty strong dose of keyboards, clean-sung vocals, a black metal screech and a death metal growl all rolled into a surprisingly coherent album. The name of the band is dumb, I know, and the cover artwork – a woman, with her violin (or cello, etc.) by her side, reading music sheets on the shore near a lighthouse as a ship approaches – is kind of odd. The quality of the sound is good and modern; the songs, in some form, always have symphonic, thrashy power metal guitar workings with a combination of the three vocal styles. The keyboards, to a large extent, sound influenced by power metal, as well as Children of Bodom. The drummer is the double-bass, speedy type. The guitars are in some form of Blind Guardian and some (non-oldschool) black metal combination. Moreover, it is Mr.Touminen that is so schizophrenic and talented with the constant three-pronged vocal attack. And what about the songs? Are they good? Yes. I think people who would like a mix of power metal and black metal, would find this interesting. I, for one, find two things keeping me from enjoying this more: 1) the songs, while good, still sound too derivative of their influences and 2) the mixing of styles still does not flow as well as the band is trying to make them. The potential for something good is here. This is a pretty solid, pretty good album, but it’s a second-division release still.