Opus Arise

Wales group Lost in Thought hit the progressive metal scene with a fury with their first lp "Opus Arise". Lost in Thought plays emotion-filled progressive metal that's full of great instrumentation, thoughtful lyrics, heavy riffing, and most of all beautiful vocal lines and melodies. The vocals are by far the highlight for me about this band. Nate Loosemore certainly remembers Dream Theater's Images and Words album as his falsetto vocals are very reminiscent of James LaBrie's falsettos, although overall this is no Dream Theater clone. This band definitely has a defining original sound.

The album kicks off with a great progressive metal track, "Beyond the Flames". In good form, it displays what exactly we are going to be hearing in this album. And each subsequent track expands on the ideas from this song. Stand out songs include, "Delusional Abyss", "Entity", and "Blood Red Diamond."

I don't have much complaints about this album except for a few minor details. There is a bit of metalcore influence I could do without, mainly in a lot of the chugging riffs. The album art is also very bland and as much as I can tell has nothing to do with the album itself.

Overall, these complaints are extremely minor as obviously shown in my extremely high rating of this album. This album will certainly be a contender for top 5 albums of the year.