martindavey87
Here's a band called Wingdom. Let's take a moment to let that sink in...
...
Wingdom?
Bwahahahahahahahaha!
Back in 2010 I was living in Germany and enjoying the vast landscape of obscure progressive/power/symphonic metal bands that Europe has to offer, and as such, I stumbled across this album on eBay for the measly sum of €1. Wingdom? Ha! "What an awful name for a band". But hey, the seller listed it as progressive metal, and it was a Euro, so I decided to give it a chance.
I'm glad I did.
This album is absolutely fantastic, and incredibly underrated. Sadly, Wingdom have since split up and never released a follow-up, but 'Reality' shows so much potential for a band that could have gone on to make some really good music.
Similar to bands like Platitude (who nobody has heard of) and Red Circuit (who approximately seven people have heard of), Wingdom have that very distinct and recognizable progressive metal sound of heavy, groove-laden guitars and melodic keyboards, intertwined with some fantastic male vocals of a pretty high range, but without the ten-minute songs and constant time changes. It's a sound any fan of prog or power metal can instantly appreciate, and it won't take countless listens to familiarize yourself with every song!
It's radio-friendly progressive metal that you will never hear on the radio!
In fact, within seconds of putting this album on, opening track 'Time' had won me over! It doesn't mess around with three-minute long intros, it gets straight to the punch, and sometimes that's just what progressive metal needs! It doesn't have the crazy level of musical virtuosity that'd you hear in bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X or Time Requiem, but songs like 'Never Stop', 'Lighthouse', 'The Essence', and the aforementioned 'Time', are all reasons why this album shouldn't be left to linger in musical obscurity.
If you can look past the silly name (challenge: tell a friend you like a band called "Wingdom" and see how daft you feel afterwards) then there really is some solid music here, which goes to demonstrate the old cliché of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.