I Will Not Break

I would first like to start off by saying that James Labrie of Dream Theater has been one of my favorite vocalists of all time. I own literally everything he's ever sang on and have loved virtually everything he's done. For those of you that is new to his solo career, it has changed drastically in sound with each album. The debut, when the band was called Mullmuzzler, was very heavily prog rock influenced, the second was a slightly heavier, more straightforward prog metal album, and the third began changing to a more modern sound with lots of samples, depressing lyrics, etc. By his fourth album Static Impulse the band's sound had drastically changed with the addition of Darkane drummer Peter Wildoer, by adding harsh vocals to a more metalcore style, yet still maintaining melody and James's trademark melodic vocals. With Labrie's 2013 effort Impermanent Resonance we see very much more of the same aggression, albeit an oddly mixed blend of Soilwork-esque songs, really soft radio rock ballads, and a lack of high notes. I was surprised to see that so shortly after he had already announced he was releasing an EP in 2014. I honestly had no idea what to expect from it given how erratic and drastically different all of the other albums have been.

I Will Not Break is essentially a digital EP that is a blend of one track from the last studio album, two bonus tracks from it, a couple of demo versions and alternate mixes, and three dubstep remixes, all of which are from the Static Impulse album. I don't even know where to began to describe how perplexing the reason could be for wanting to release this as it is. I am a very huge supporter of physical media and am rather disappointed when any band releases their material as digital only. Secondly, I have no idea why the last half of the EP are versions that aren't even originally from the last studio album. Lastly, I have a strong opinion that dubstep needs to stay away from heavy metal. Its a genre that I don't particular care for at all.

The opening track, aptly named I Will Not Break is the exact same version as is on Impermanent Resonance. If you removed Labrie's vocals you would almost guess it to be a Darkane or Soilwork song. It has a lot of chugging guitar riffs and repeats the chorus a bit too often for my liking. Marco Sfogli is an absolutely amazing guitarist, which is why I'm surprised to see that this track does not have a solo and far too many simplistic riffs. It is a easily a very skipable song and definitely nowhere near the best on the last album. It honestly would not have been my first choice as the one album track to name the entire EP after.

The next two tracks, Unraveling and Why are bonus tracks from the past album. There is nothing really very special about either track. Unraveling is another one of those tracks that sound very radio friendly and would have just clogged the album up with a style that was already quite prevalent and once again has no guitar solo. Why is a little more upbeat track. The harsh vocals are kept at a minimum, has a pretty competent solo, but all in all is quite forgettable.

The alternate mix of Coming Home honestly ruins the song. I originally loved it. It was a very beautiful ballad written about Labrie's family, and they attempted to add spooky sounding random keyboard effects throughout the song. Other than the misplaced keyboards, the track is virtually the same, only much more emotionless.

The next two demo tracks are quite odd. Jekyll or Hyde is obviously not James Labrie doing hardly any, if any, of the vocals. It sounds almost more like a Three Days Grace song, or of any other band who could easy be played on alternative rock radio. Knowing that James isn't in this will just make me skip it every time. Just Watch me was originally one of my favorite tracks off of Static Impulse. I love the positive message to. This version, like the last track does not have James singing anything on it and still comes out sounding really weak and boring. If I wanted to hear something like this I would turn on the radio.

The next three tracks right off the bat I was pretty sure I was going to hate, seeing as how they are all dubstep remixes. I Tried, was originally my absolute favorite track on Static Impulse. This version comes out very choppy sounding with really annoying consistent electronic drum beats. I seriously couldn't make it through even half of this. Over the Edge just has a lot of drops, morphing James's vocals into robot voice, and once again is almost immediately ear grating. My complaints about Euphoric are exactly the same.

I honestly have no idea why James Labrie decided to release this. It comes off sounding really forced and pointless from all angles. Coming from one of my all time favorite singers, if he decides to keep this up, I will be forced to stop buying any of his solo albums, which is really sad. Just a few short years ago I was looking forward to seeing his solo act live, and now it is almost to the point if he played my backyard I wouldn't want to attend. Hopefully future releases get back on track.

Originally written for The Metal Pit.