TURBULENCE — Frontal (review)

Album · 2021 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2021-10-26
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.