lukretion For his fourth solo album – the first in nearly a decade – Dream Theater’s singer James LaBrie has mixed things up considerably, starting with the musicians he has brought in to collaborate with him on the new record. Keyboard player Matt Guillory, who had been LaBrie’s wingman of choice for his previous solo outings, does not feature on Beautiful Shade of Grey, and neither do Ray Riendeau (bass) and Peter Wildoer (drums), who had both played on the singer’s previous two records. The new album has instead been written together with Eden’s Curse bassist Paul Logue who here also plays acoustic rhythm guitar. Logue then recruited his fellow bandmate Christian Pulkkinen to play keyboards, while LaBrie’s son, Chance, was recruited behind the kit. Lead guitarist Marco Sfogli (PFM) is thus the only musician on the new album who had also played with LaBrie on previous records.

The lineup changes are mirrored by a significant departure from the sound LaBrie had explored on previous records. In fact, Beautiful Shade of Grey is as far removed from metal as anything that LaBrie has sung on before. The album’s 10 tracks explore instead a musical space at the intersection between progressive rock and acoustic hard rock, visiting places that have more affinity with bands like Spock’s Beard, their melodic rock offshoot Pattern-Seeking Animals, or Troika (Neal Morse’s recent collaboration with Nick D’Virgilio and Ross Jennings), than Dream Theater or other prog metal acts. The songs are predominantly acoustic, even when they build up to a full-band approach. Acoustic guitars, piano, and Hammond organ provide the songs’ harmonic texture, which Chance LaBrie’s restrained drumming is careful not to overpower. Meanwhile, Marco Sfogli interjects some technical but exquisitely melodic solos, frequently using the acoustic guitar too.

This rich but delicate musical tapestry offers a perfect background for James LaBrie to explore the entirety of his vocal range and skills, in a way that he is often unable to do with his main band. On “Give and Take” the singer reaches the lowest notes in his range, and the contrast with the high notes he hits for instance on “SuperNova Girl” testifies to his impressive range. Elsewhere, LaBrie has a chance to show how expressive his voice can be when he does not have to sing melodies over speed-of-light metal anthems (“Sunset Ruin”, “Am I Right”). Meanwhile, the gorgeous multiple voice harmony at the beginning of “Conscience Calling” provides an insight into what some of the singer’s influences on this album may have been (Journey, Foreigner).

Beautiful Shade of Grey flows away very pleasantly, although it does lean a bit too heavily on mellow balladry. It’s a pity because when LaBrie experiments with the use of acoustic instruments in a more hard rock / uptempo context, things get really interesting, like on the two acoustic rockers “Devil in Drag” and “Hit Me like a Brick”. The slow tunes are of course great too, although only some truly hit the mark (the heartrending “Sunset Ruin”, dedicated to LaBrie’s late brother; “Am I Right”, where we also find a cameo by Theresa Thomason, whom Dream Theater’s fans may remember from her duets with LaBrie on “The Spirit Carries On”), while others fall somewhat flat, suffering from weaker melodic ideas (“SuperNova Girl”, “Wildflower”). I am also slightly puzzled by the way LaBrie chose to close the album, with a Led Zeppelin’s cover (“Ramble On”) and an “electric” version of the LP’s opening track, “Devil in Drag”. While it may be mildly entertaining to hear LaBrie do his best Plant’s impersonation, both songs feel largely unnecessary, and spoil somewhat the record’s flow.

Nevertheless, Beautiful Shade of Grey remains a thoroughly enjoyable record that shows a side of LaBrie that we do get to see often with his main band. Dream Theater’s fans (and metalheads in general) may not be overly impressed by the LP, because there are essentially zero traces of metal here. The album may instead appeal more to fans of 1970s hard rock / prog rock, who may be surprised to find in LaBrie a new, versatile voice for their favourite genre.

martindavey87 Having ditched the Mullmuzzler moniker of his previous solo outings, world-renowned vocalist James LaBrie of Dream Theater assembled a new line-up and released his first "official" solo album. Whilst it may come as no surprise that it certainly sounds a lot like Dream Theater and makes use of a lot of the prog metal characteristics that the band pioneered, a steady influence of nu metal, "groove metal" and electronic elements give this album enough of its own identity so that it doesn't sound like "just another Dream Theater album"... while still sounding somewhat similar to the prog metal icons.

One of the biggest differences that set LaBrie's solo work apart from his main band is that the songs are a lot more straightforward and stripped down. The song structures are more akin to standard heavy metal. But with that said, the similarities are still there. Guitarist Marco Sfogli is an absolute beast on the guitar, yet his tone pretty much replicates John Petrucci's perfectly. Matt Guillory's keyboard playing never disappoints, and drummer Mike Mangini must have impressed someone, as he would later go on to join Dream Theater!

There's nothing fancy to say here, and no overly critical insults. 'Crucify', 'Alone', 'Lost' and 'Drained' are all solid tracks that make this a good, quality progressive metal album.

Diogenes After finishing up the highly successful tour for Dream Theater’s A Dramatic Turn of Events, vocalist James LaBrie got back together with songwriting partner and keyboardist Matt Guillory to record the follow-up album to 2011’s Static Impulse. Even though the more abrasive style on that album came as a surprise to some who follow LaBrie’s musical career closely, it was received fairly well, and Impermanent Resonance is written and played in mostly the same vein as its predecessor, and yields mostly the same results.

You could call this album “Static Impulse II” and not be too far off base; if you’ve heard that album, not much on Impermanent Resonance will shock you. It’s a collection of shorter pop metal songs with a heavier edge, thanks to the modern and aggressive guitar tone of Marco Sfolgi and the growling vocals of Peter Wildoer. The centerpiece of the album is, of course, still the unmistakable singing of James LaBrie, though his clean singing and Wildoer’s growls are used extensively in a “call-and-response” fashion not unlike that of mid-era Soilwork and many other Gothenburg-style metal bands. That’s where the comparisons to the melodic death metal genre end, however, as both the album’s riffs and recurring electronic sampling lean towards accessibility rather than heaviness. Make no mistake about it; both Sfolgi and Wildoer know their ways around their instruments, but technicality is reigned in for the most part here.

Being the album’s main focus, LaBrie’s vocals are in fine form on Impermanent Resonance, as they have been on his two previous “solo” efforts. Though his higher register hasn’t been employed nearly as much on recent Dream Theater material, the vocals on this album sit even more comfortably in the middle of LaBrie’s range, as he sings possibly the catchiest group of vocal melodies I’ve ever heard from him. It’s pretty clear that Impermanent Resonance was written with this in mind, and they did a good job of it, as there are hooks en masse and some really great choruses on here; “Slight of Hand,” “Lost in the Fire,” and “Amnesia” are my personal favorites, though there is nary a song on this album that doesn’t feature a really poppy hook or vocal line of some sort.

As the sing-along moments of Impermanent Resonance are so prevalent, particular attention is drawn to the album’s lyrics; like on Static Impulse, they’re quite angst-y and personal, and this is where this album lets me down a bit. I don’t want to call the penmanship on Impermanent Resonance lame, but it’s a little weird to hear a veteran vocalist like LaBrie sing lines such as “Say you're mine, that we're not broken in two, say you're still mine, say it's me and you.” I’ll be honest: I find the album’s lyrics so polarizing that I shy away from certain songs that are otherwise pretty good just because the words are so cheesy.

Fortunately, that’s the only part of Impermanent Resonance that I can see anyone having a problem with. With its sleek, modern production and well-written songs, it’s an incredibly easy album to listen to, and for that reason I’d recommend you give it a try regardless of your opinion on LaBrie and/or Dream Theater (because apart from the voice, this album sounds nothing like the prog metal giants whatsoever). It’s a solid piece of pop metal that you should enjoy if you also liked the previous LP released under LaBrie’s name.

adg211288 Although he'll always likely be known first and foremost as the voice of progressive metal giants Dream Theater, James LaBrie has been putting out a reasonable amount of music without his Dream Theater band mates for many years now, first with Mullmuzzler and then with the Mullmuzzler musicians albums under his own name. Impermanent Resonance (2013) is the third solo release from the Canadian vocalist. It's going to be a double dose of LaBrie year with Dream Theater releasing a self-titled album later in the year. It's been a few years though since LaBrie's last solo effort, Static Impulse (2010), an album which saw him flirting with extreme metal, including growling vocals courtesy of drummer Peter Wildoer. The same line-up joins James again for Impermanent Resonance. As an band I have to be fair they're no Dream Theater but a solid act in their own right.

Impermanent Resonance comes across as the logically continuation of its predecessor, with LaBrie leading the vocal delivery with growling support from Wildoer. To be honest I seem to like Wildoer's contributions more on Static Impulse than I do here, but that may be because LaBrie himself is on such top form these days that Wildoer comes over as a bit of a spare wheel. The songs themselves follow a similar pattern to Static Impulse, being much shorter and traditionally structured compared to some of the stuff LaBrie's main band has come up with. It's still progressive metal that LaBrie plays when he's away from Dream Theater, but it's a different, more modern sounding kind with shades of melodic death metal.

LaBrie hasn't broken any new ground here the way he did with Static Impulse, but overall Impermanent Resonance is a nice follow-up to that album. Opener Agony (also the album's lead single) is one of the best solo tracks I've heard from LaBrie yet and there are some other highlight contenders in the form of songs like Undertow, I Got You and Letting Go. The quality otherwise is solid but it does kind of feel like the same ideas are being used all the time. A couple of tracks go into balladry territory but otherwise once you know what to expect from the album it isn't ever going to come across as the most adventurous progressive metal release. LaBrie's vocals are the true highlight. Overall I prefer Static Impulse to this one, but even so a great album tier rating is still deserved here.

83/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/james-labrie-impermanent-resonance-t3136.html)

arcane-beautiful For those who don't know who this guy is, he's basically the lead singer of one of the biggest unheard of band's on the planet. Now, I know that is a paradox, but let me explain. Dream Theater in the prog world are one of the biggest bands in history, but in the mainstream world, they are barely anything. They got nominated for a Grammy last year, and even then people where wondering who these guys where.

The best way I can describe James' solo career is much like Bruce Dickinson's solo career. It is very odd to learn, but yes, these two do have solo careers, even though they are the voices of 2 of the biggest metal bands on the planet. But instead of basically doing what there previous bands are doing, they offer something a little bit different to the table.

I was shocked to read the linear notes of the album and discover that in fact a lot of the songs where not even written by James himself, and instead most of the songs where written by writing partner Matt Guillory. I'm not sure if this is 100% correct, but either way I'm not too phased by it, because it doesn't take away the impact of the material.

Now, musically James has now been able to create a new sound and a staple for himself. The last album “Static Impulse” did flirt with melodic death metal ideas and bringing in death growls from Peter Wildoer did give the album a certain flair, but on this album those ideas have been melded with a bigger focus on songwriting, giving the album a more pop laced feeling. I mean it, the best way to really describe this album is a weird hybrid of Soilwork and One Direction.

The albums lead single “Agony” is one of the main highlights. Whenever this got released, I was so surprised at how much I liked this song. Having not not read the lyrics to the song, I was just enjoying it for the catchy moments, but after getting the album and having a read...yea...pretty dark stuff (it's about domestic abuse by the way).

“Back On The Ground” could easily be a One Direction song. I really mean it, this song is so poppy and catchy that James & Matt could have easily sold this off to Simon Cowell. The guitar sound is surprisingly heavy as hell as well, which does make the song a little bit more enjoyable. A great and diverse vocal performance from James too.

“Destined To Burn” is probably the best lyrical moment on the album. A song about racism...yea sometimes this can either be alright, terrible or just very cheesy (“Ebony & Ivory” comes to mind). It is pulled off very well and has some great riffs and melodies throughout.

“Say You're Still Mine” is also another great pop meets metal collaboration. A brilliant uplifting chorus and total cheese.

I recommend getting the Digipack version because there are two bonus tracks “Unraveling” and “Why”, and they are great songs that could have even been on the album and wouldn't affected it in any way.

In conclusion, this is definitely James' strongest solo effort to date. With some of his most memorable tracks and some of the catchiest songs I've heard in metal for a long time, this really is going to challenge a lot of what is to come on the new Dream Theater album. Brilliant album with some timeless classics in my opinion.

8.2/10