Innergy

Forgotten Suns. Listening to this album is quite an experience. I enjoy it… maybe. But at the same time, I really dislike this band. It’s as if a really talented progressive rock band mixed with the likes of some not-so-talented new aged “metal core” band.

One of their self-proclaimed genres is fusion and that is definitely well fitting of this band. Though I feel it is a bad fusion. A fusion that is ALMOST there but they’re still a bit confused on where exactly they want to go with their music.
The first track, Flashback, starts out with an audio clip then transitions into an attention grabbing first song. The guitar is very driving, very heavy, and very typical of popular rock. I almost wish the guitarist was working as hard as the keyboardist was. If it weren’t for the keyboard, I feel this band would be considered “nu metal”. The vocalist even does the rock band’s form of “rap” found in bands such as Disturbed and even some Slipknot. If that vocal style is something the listener would enjoy, then more power to you.

It’s a shame that the vocalist does switch his vocals up so much, which I don’t say too often. However, as a progressive rock singer, he is fantastic! I love his highs and vibrato! It’s when he gets angrier and rougher that it kind of all falls apart and seems jumbled and out of tune.

As the CD goes on, the tracks don’t get any better, especially the vocals and guitar style. When it comes solo time in a song, I cannot tell if the guitar is soloing with really heavy synth or if the keyboard is playing a guitar-like solo. There is only one solo where I’m sure it is the guitar, in the track “Outside In” and the solo itself seems very forced and out of placed. In my eyes a good progressive rock player plays with more of a keyboard feel than a hard power chord style found in over played hard rock bands.

As a whole, I really like the mix of keyboard and synth drums throughout the CD. The bass player is also very talented and I really enjoy the fills in-between guitar riffs you can hear every now and then. If it weren’t for the “nu metal” guitar style and confused vocalist, I believe I would really dig this album. In my opinion, the vocalist needs to either stick to his progressive rock style, or his other style which I don’t really have a name for. The mix of both creates a very uneasy listening experience that at the end of every track leaves me questioning ‘what was that’?