Album: Extension Of The Wish
Released: May 29, 2001
Genre: Progressive Metal
Track Listing:
1. "The Words Unspoken" – 5:28
2. "Crescendo Of Thoughts" – 5:243. "In The Deepest Of Waters" – 7:07
4. "Chameleon Carnival" – 4:59
5. "Star Shooter Supreme" – 5:18
6. "Extension Of The Wish" – 10:02
7. "Arch Angel" – 5:54
*Rating: 7 1/2 out of 10.
The first song that I heard off of this album was actually "The Words Unspoken" which was directed to me from Pandora. Needless to say I was quite impressed with the song itself and demanded to hear more of it, so I found out that the album in which that song originates is called "Extension Of The Wish". So I listened to all the tracks from it and it was kind of a mixed bag for me (hence the 7 1/2 out of 10). The songs I really enjoyed off of this particular album are Track 1, The Words Unspoken, Track 2, Crescendo Of Thoughts, Track 5, Star Shooter Supreme, and Track 7 Arch Angel.
Now, just because I didn't incredibly enjoy all of the tracks off of this album, that doesn't mean all the other songs are terrible. In fact they really aren't. However. I was unfortunately greeted with a little bit of the "songs starting to drag and mush into one another". Essentially what this means is while some of the tracks stand out (such as the ones I listed previously) some of the tracks felt a little on the weak side to me. Despite these shortcomings, the overall experience of the album is a good one, however you may end up doing a little bit of track favouritism when it comes to this album. The other songs (not listed in my favourites above) are decent songs and they are certainly worth listening to, but the best of the breed off of this album, are the tracks I listed above.
Is this album worth buying, in a word yes. Despite the shortcomings of some of the tracks, this album does a decent job in displaying the heart of the progressive metal genre. While this band seems a bit unknown (I personally hadn't come across them until Pandora popped them up on my radar) I am definitely looking forward to future albums from Andromeda.
The trouble progressive rock/metal albums can come across if they aren't careful is too much meandering and lack of connection. One of the primary points of progressive rock and metal is it avoids the traditional "verse-chorus" song structures that a lot of pop songs follow. They generally meander into more complex arrangements and odd timing structures, and what they need to watch out for is that they don't get "lost" on their way through the song. A lot of criticism arises against progressive type bands because their songs tend to be greater in length and folks used to the standard 3-5 minute song have trouble fathoming what could go on in even a 10 minute song (or in some other band's cases 24 minute songs, ahem Symphony X). If done well these longer songs are incredible to listen to and the length of the song becomes irrelevant. I always base my movie recommendations on the same principle as my song recommendations, this principle is something like, "The quality of a movie (or song) is directly related to how many times you wonder to yourself how much longer until it's over. Obviously if the movie (or song) is good you get that lovely experience of not even noticing the time passage since the movie (or song) drew you in so completely." Andromeda in this album held their own very well, but as I've been suggesting some of the songs felt a little lethargic to me. Despite this lethargy Andromeda held onto me (even in the "weaker" songs) which led me to refuse to hit the "next track" button prematurely.
The bottom line. Check this album out, especially if you're into progressive rock/metal, and even if you aren't but enjoy nice instrumentation.
*Note: I had a very difficult time coming up with a solid rating for this album. I kept re-editing the post changing the rating between 7 1/2 and 8. So if you are looking for the most accurate rating I'm going to call it a strong 7 weakening towards 8 (hence the final 7 1/2 out of 10 rating).
