JAMES LABRIE — Static Impulse (review)

JAMES LABRIE — Static Impulse album cover

Album · 2010 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2011-08-28
Diogenes

Here we are with another album by James LaBrie. It’s not really a “solo” album per se, since Matt Guillory also wrote it, but far more people know who James LaBrie is, and marketing 101 says to put the most profitable name on the record. So, a JLB solo album it is!

To be honest, I didn’t think this would be any good. I never got into Mullmuzzler and I thought Elements of Persuasion was pretty forgettable. Fortunately, LaBrie wrote some good stuff this time, exploring a new style and hitting on it for the most part. Static Impulse shows the longtime Dream Theater frontman blending a more traditional heavy metal style with modern melodic death metal elements, with sludgy riffing courtesy of Marco Sfolgi and Matt Guillory’s keyboards playing a big role. There are some harsh vocals provided by drummer Peter Wildoer, but they are used pretty sparingly; if anything, the majority of the Gothenburg influence comes from the guitar work and not the vocals. This should come as somewhat of a relief to those of you who hated unnecessary AAARRRRGGGGHHHHs from a certain someone COUGHMIKECOUGHPORTNOYCOUGHCOUGH in an aforementioned band. Hum.

As for James himself, he’s been criticized on pretty much every Dream Theater album since Falling into Infinity; his voice is either annoying, or too operatic, or too unfitting with the Dream Theater approach, or whatever. However, here his vocals are much more tolerable, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering he wrote his own vocal lines-what a concept! It should be known by now that LaBrie’s not going to be hitting any more F#s, but on Static Impulse he sounds both as confident and comfortable as he did in the old days. His slightly smaller vocal range fits the heavier sound shockingly well; if you didn’t like how he sounded compared to the music on, say, Train of Thought, you might want to give this one a shot for kicks.

Apart from LaBrie’s vocals, there aren’t really any due Dream Theater comparisons on this album. The songs are all fairly short and structured with no extended instrumental sections, which might be a bummer if that’s what you were expecting. Make no mistake about it; LaBrie’s supporting cast (Sfolgi in particular) has some chops, but they’re not playing much in the way of progressive metal on Static Impulse. There are plenty of catchy melodies, both of the keyboard and vocal variety (I TRIED! I TRIED!). The playing is still pretty tight, serving as a reminder of the experience in this lineup, yet the album largely of the “low-risk” variety. As such, it’s hard for me to say that anything on this album is a must-listen, although I find that a lot of the songs (Euphoric in particular) are catchy enough to have a permanent home in my collection.

The only major issue this album has is the order of the songs. One More Time is good, but the Wildoer’s screaming right off the bat gives the impression that Static Impulse is going to sound like some random Gothenburg band. This is not the case. On the opposite end, Coming Home is an anticlimactic album closer, being the only “soft” song on here. This whole thing is fairly negligible though, as my pickiness is easily put to rest with a simple click of “shuffle”. So, that’s that.

Obviously, if you’re a fan of LaBrie, you’re going to like this simply because his vocals are much less strained than on most Dream Theater releases. Other than that, I can’t think of anyone that will surely love this album; it’s straightforward enough to appeal to many, although it might not have enough memorability to stick. It’s pretty obvious that Static Impulse is more of a side project, and thus it isn’t an essential…but it’s very well done for this sort of thing, and it’s good for a few listens.