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The Script of Life is the third album by German progressive metal act Liquid Horizon, which was released in 2011. The album features nine studio tracks and also includes a live bonus track that originally appeared on their 2005 debut, Urban Legends. The style is mostly vanilla progressive metal, though sometimes the vocals vary from the usual cleans to growls in order to add a more extreme edge to parts of the otherwise pretty melodic record.
The typical sound of Liquid Horizon on this album is heavy guitars (which could be heavier to be fair, but I don’t generally have a problem with them), with a backing of symphonic keyboards, although they don’t overpower the guitars which is a good thing in a metal record. There’s a large focus on melody in the group’s music, and light sections dotted between their harder hitting parts are often heard, and work well to add variety to longer tracks such as opener All the World, which is one of the best that The Script of Life offers. This is somewhat typical for progressive metal though, with that mix of heavy and light sections, and solo’s from both the guitars and keyboard. It’s certainly a well crafted album, and it has many great tracks, including Coasts of Holland and Crown of Creation in addition to the above mentioned All the World. It’s consistent as well, but I guess it’s also because of that that the album never really manages to surprise once you’re a few tracks in, and because of that the album never really manages to really wow me with anything it offers. It’s a solid offering for sure, but it never has any moments where it goes beyond that it the ‘really awesome!’ zone.
Many of The Script of Life’s songs are of a shorter length (by prog standards at least) at around five minutes, and feature fairly standardised song structures. The chorus sections of the tracks have lyrically hooks, which makes for very easy singing along once you’ve got to know the album. Crown of Creation is one of the more openly progressive tracks on the album, and the progressive influences seem to pick up on the latter half of the album, but some of the material requires several listens to really pick up on all the details of what’s going on, and the album is certainly a grower in this regard as well, so perseverance is recommended with this album.
The main issue I have with The Script of Life is that vocalist Oliver Kilthau hasn’t got the most powerful voice I ever heard. He carries that band’s songs well enough, and is able to put some variation into his delivery which is always good, but I find myself unable to shake the feeling that with a stronger vocal The Script of Life could have been taken to some real heady heights of greatness. The growls are the weaker side to the vocals really, but fortunately their usage is rare during the album.
The Script of Life isn’t exactly the most striking or unique album I have ever heard, but after listening to it several times I find that I do enjoy it a fair bit. All the songs are good, and a few of them are even great, and I’m actually surprised that the band isn’t more known than they are, since this is pretty accessible as far as progressive music goes. The musicianship and writing are both strong and the production is fitting to the band’s style, so overall, this would be a solid addition to anyone’s metal collection, so long what they are looking for is a prog metal album that doesn’t do a lot to break the mould. And if that really is what you find yourself wanting you could do a lot worse than to pick up The Script of Life. Credit where credit is due where the scoring is concerned, but there are better albums out there.
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 7.8/10)