SPEAKING TO STONES — Elements (review)

SPEAKING TO STONES — Elements album cover Album · 2012 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Earth, wind and fire...

Genre: progressive metal

At its worst progressive metal tends to be mindless ripping off of Dream Theater's iconic sound. At it's best, progressive metal is challenging, theatrical, epic, exploratory, genre-transcending and original. Although obviously inspired by the likes of Dream Theater, Speaking to Stone's "Elements"-album falls under the latter category.

With song lengths ranging from nine to fiftee minues, Speaking to Stones are a band who take their time in building up their songs, and they do not shy away from longer instrumental intros as in 'Wind'. With such long songs, Speaking to Stones have plenty of room for inserting a lot of different passages and sections into each song, which results in dynamic song structures. Even the epic power ballad 'Water' is kept interesting all the way through, and 'Earth' is like four different songs in one. The final track 'Quinta Essentia' is an epic track with a slight exotic feel and symphonic elements popping up side by side with both ballady and heavy passages.

The songs are generally based on relatively heavy guitar riffs accompanied by spacey, and at times symphonic keyboards, and a nice audible bass, played by Greg Putnam, that combines the edge of Steve Harris' energetic playing and the sophistication of Steve DiGiorgio's style. As mentioned the structures are dynamic and complex, interchanging between heavy metallic parts and quieter (sometimes acoustic) passages. While the musicianship is definitely very advanced (Mark Zonder has given a helping hand on the drums which is definitely preferable to programmed drums) and Speaking to Stones play music, which not everyone could pull off, things never get so technically advanced that even casual listeners cannot keep up. There are odd time signatures and the songs are, of course, long, so mindless followers of today's pop music scene will not be able to understand this music, but any independently thinking individual should definitely be able to follow and enjoy this album. Of course, the guitar leads are virtuosic, but they tend to - unlike some other prog metal bands - actually fit the overall music very well and do not come of as mere ego flashing.

While paying homage to the giants of progressive metal, Speaking to Stones have still produced a quite original and very enjoyable progressive metal album which is both focused and varied. "Elements" is recommended to any fan progressive metal.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed