siLLy puPPy TURBULENCE has made the most impact as a progressive metal band simply by coming from a nation that isn’t usually associated with the extreme side of Western extreme music. The band formed in 2013 in Lebanon riding in the wake of bands like Myrath who were putting the Middle Eastern nations on the map for metal music. The band released its debut “Disequilibrium” in 2015 but mostly went unheard and it would be six more long years before the band released its second album “Frontal.”

This is where i and many others finally heard about this band and experienced its Dream Theater inspired proggy metal for the first time. I was impressed. While not exactly charting unexplored territory in the vast world of prog metal, TURBULENCE crafted an excellent album that sounded part Dream Theater, part Leprous, part Haken and a whole slew of similar sounding bands. The band was dripping with confidence and the ability to pull off its chameleonesque music magic guaranteed “Frontal” picked up more than a few fans.

Fast forward four years and TURBULENCE is back with its third slab of polyrhythmic prog with the title BINARY DREAMS that implements crunchy djent riffing, rhythmic complexities and touches of jazz fusion all dressed up in molten metal ferocity. The band retained the same lineup with the exception of keyboardist Mood Yassin who replaces Mahamoud Yasine. Featuring six vocal tracks and three instrumentals, BINARY DREAMS runs about 49 minutes and once again delivers a veritable hybrid effect of Dream Theater, Leprous and even a bit of Riverside and Shadow Gallery this time around.

A concept album that tells the tale of a robot at the center of an experiment called “Binary Dreaming,” the saga results in the android entity achieving self-awareness and becomes sentient, a possible warning of the worries of the rampant development of the artificial intelligence technologies sweeping the planet in the 21st century. BINARY DREAMS pretty much carries on as the logical next step of “Frontal” without changing the game plan. Once again this is progressive metal in the traditional 90s sense with alternating clean guitar mellow motifs that give way to knotty guitar riff dominance that allows the groovy bass and drumming technicalities to unleash their full potential.

Once again the star of the show is lead vocalist Omar El Hage who really does have the perfect vocal ability for this style of prog metal that demands a firm control and an even more demanding range. Sounding just a tad like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, El Hage’s lyrical deliveries align perfectly with the soft and soothing quieter aspects of the album as well as they do with the more boisterous metal moments. While the band does weave in its indigenous Arabic folk music into the mix, it’s actually very subtle and to my ears at least virtually undetectable. While not as rowdy or symphonically based as guitarist Alain Ibrihim’s other band Ostura, the band delivers a great mix of the more intricate and tender aspects of prog metal with the perfect appropriation of the heavy metal.

Not much really to set this one apart from the last. If the previous “Frontal” appealed to you then you will find a lot to love here. Same deal really. Not reinventing the wheel but certainly crafting an above average slice of traditional prog metal in a style that many claim has been oversaturated. For me these types of bands are hit and miss and it really boils down to the performances and in the end it’s really both the strong compositions and the vocals that win me over. While a few more faster tempos segments would’ve been appreciated, as it stands it’s a really great album for what it delivers. This is the dreamier side of prog metal so it helps if you can appreciate soft tones and lush atmospheric backdrops.

siLLy puPPy Ever since Myrath put the Arabic speaking Middle East and Northern Africa on the map as a hotspot for metal music, many a band has sprung forth to join the rest of the world in the music magic that this distorted and obnoxious genre of music has offered. Calibre, Chopstick Suicide, Coast of Arms, Creative Waste, Kimaera, Mortem Atra, New Carnis, Phenomy, Scarab and Smouldering In Forgotten may not be household names like Judas Priest or Metallica but yet the legion of metal musicians continues to grow worldwide even in places where most Westerners could possibly imagine. Africa and Western Asia are no exceptions.

TURBULENCE is one such band that has emerged from Lebanon, all the way back in 2013 in fact. The debut “Disequilibrium” was released in 2015 and didn’t quite make the grade for garnering international attention but with the band’s 2021 sophomore album FRONTAL, this Middle Eastern metal band has finally garnered the attention it deserves as one of the best up and coming talents from a region of the world that is woefully too often associated with dystopia and despair. Unfortunately the 24/7 news cycle of gloom and doom forgets that people wake up every day and live their lives and some even thrive in the face of adversity.

OMG the world of progressive metal has come a LOOOONG ass way since Watchtower showcased the technical possibilities of the metal universe all the way back in the 1980s. Of course it took Dream Theater in the 1990s to put the world of progressive metal on the map and there has been no shortage of imitators and innovators of this style of prog rock meets heavy metal ever since. In that regard TURBULENCE is just one of countless such bands that has followed in the footsteps of its predecessors but while prog metal bands are hardly uncommon, a band that finds its own sound without getting too weird and far out certainly is rarer indeed.

Once music expands in complexity, the phylogenic tree of nearest relatives is somewhat useful at least in terms of conveying where exactly a band is coming from when written in a form of review. TURBULENCE is very much of the “old school” prog metal ilk with progressive rock compositional styles meeting the more energetic delivers of Dream Theater, Haken, Circus Maximus, Pain of Salvation, early Leprous, Threshold, Seventh Wonder, Shadow Gallery and i could go on and on and on. Stylistically TURBULENCE falls in between and amongst this long list of prog metal warriors but somewhere in the mix has found a unique style of its own at least for those who can distinguish between the subtleties beyond within the somewhat pigeon-holed prog metal subgenre that basically exists within the context of Dream Theater.

OK, reinventing the wheel is not TURBULENCE’s forte but don’t let that shy you away. FRONTAL is a beast of an album that is passionately delivered and fortified with excellent musicianship that keeps my interest in its entirety despite the rather steep near 66 minutes of playing time. What you can expect here is a multitude of proggy instrumental workouts, excellent compositional fortitude and amazingly passionate vocals from frontman Omar El Hage. You can also expect loads of heavy guitar riffing, prog keyboard workouts, bass and drum rhythmic dynamism and a stellar production job. There’s not much to dislike on FRONTAL however the originality factor could be turned up a few notches. Despite not being following int he footsteps of many prog metal band that came before, this is really an interesting blend of influences and one that is quite enjoyable!

Prog metal needs to be more defined these days. This is trad prog metal, you know the kind with CLEAN vocals, traditional progressive rock sort of compositional style and nothing too adventurous for those who worship the ground Dream Theater walks upon. This is not OMG avant-garde in the least. I used to punish artists for lack of originality but sometimes a given artist can actually perform the task better than those who originally initiated it and therefore there’s no reason to rate an album for anything other than enjoyability and competence. As far as TURBULENCE’s second album FRONTAL is concerned, this is a very beautiful construct of traditional prog metal indeed. Looking forward to what comes next.

JohnnyB From the very beginning of “Hypnagogia” Turbulence prove to be a trip through the unexpected, while still maintaining elements of progressive rock and metal that will allow fans of the genre to love them. In one moment the band can show master craftsmanship in carving out very beautiful music, and in the next they can be doing something completely off the wall. With that said let me say that if you dig Dream Theater then you will probably love Turbulence.

The primary musical minds behind the band, Alain Ibrahim on guitar and Mood Yassin on keyboards manage to make a great use of flying guitars and symphonic keyboards to build suspense, as can be heard in the second track “Richardson’s Nightmare”, and Yassin does a good job handling piano runs on “Never Let Me Go”. Although ballad, that track also features what Ibrahim is capable of as it features guitar solos that fit the song perfectly.

Owmar El Hage’s voice is a musical instrument and many times he adds fantastically to the album when blending so thoroughly with the music, but there are certainly moments where I wished he stood out a bit more. Despite this, I’d say Owmar does a very good job throughout the record, especially on longer held notes in which he maintains power in a very nice way.

The final track, “Disequilibrium” showcases both Turbulence’s ability to write longer, diverse, and ever changing songs and their ability to simply create musical excellence. Although the entire thirteen minutes of the track is amazing the chorus stands out to me as the highlight of the album. It’s also amazing how well the final lines of the verses merge themselves perfectly into the chorus. After all the beauty that is the first eight or so minutes of the song it’s amazing how well the band can transition into crazy and then later back into something softer and soothing. And although this song may be the best example of it there is evidence of it all around the album.

Musically this album is a complete gem, and come the end of the year I doubt I’ll find a new act with a debut album as promising as this one. From a production standpoint, I’d say the album sounds great. If you live in Lebanon and have a chance to see these guys, you should, and if you live anywhere in the world you should buy this album.