JAMES LABRIE — Impermanent Resonance (review)

JAMES LABRIE — Impermanent Resonance album cover Album · 2013 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Although he'll always likely be known first and foremost as the voice of progressive metal giants Dream Theater, James LaBrie has been putting out a reasonable amount of music without his Dream Theater band mates for many years now, first with Mullmuzzler and then with the Mullmuzzler musicians albums under his own name. Impermanent Resonance (2013) is the third solo release from the Canadian vocalist. It's going to be a double dose of LaBrie year with Dream Theater releasing a self-titled album later in the year. It's been a few years though since LaBrie's last solo effort, Static Impulse (2010), an album which saw him flirting with extreme metal, including growling vocals courtesy of drummer Peter Wildoer. The same line-up joins James again for Impermanent Resonance. As an band I have to be fair they're no Dream Theater but a solid act in their own right.

Impermanent Resonance comes across as the logically continuation of its predecessor, with LaBrie leading the vocal delivery with growling support from Wildoer. To be honest I seem to like Wildoer's contributions more on Static Impulse than I do here, but that may be because LaBrie himself is on such top form these days that Wildoer comes over as a bit of a spare wheel. The songs themselves follow a similar pattern to Static Impulse, being much shorter and traditionally structured compared to some of the stuff LaBrie's main band has come up with. It's still progressive metal that LaBrie plays when he's away from Dream Theater, but it's a different, more modern sounding kind with shades of melodic death metal.

LaBrie hasn't broken any new ground here the way he did with Static Impulse, but overall Impermanent Resonance is a nice follow-up to that album. Opener Agony (also the album's lead single) is one of the best solo tracks I've heard from LaBrie yet and there are some other highlight contenders in the form of songs like Undertow, I Got You and Letting Go. The quality otherwise is solid but it does kind of feel like the same ideas are being used all the time. A couple of tracks go into balladry territory but otherwise once you know what to expect from the album it isn't ever going to come across as the most adventurous progressive metal release. LaBrie's vocals are the true highlight. Overall I prefer Static Impulse to this one, but even so a great album tier rating is still deserved here.

83/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/james-labrie-impermanent-resonance-t3136.html)
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