Timeline

Back during the mid 90s recession of metal states side, there was an emerging progressive metal scene of sorts that can trace its roots back to Dream Theater's "Images And Words" and "Awake" releases respectively, yielding a number of imitators of various caliber. One of these was a short-lived Swedish outfit known as World Of Silence, whose tenure culminated in 2 full length albums, both of them steeped in cliche but reasonably competent at presenting the essential characteristics of Dream Theater's sound with a bit less technical flash and vocal gymnastics. While generally forgotten by most, assuming that they were known to any massive extent, I can't help but hear parallels when listening to this young project from Finland dubbed Mindbend.

While it is important to point out that this project is a bit different from the Swedish one referenced earlier, the source of inspiration is largely the same period of pioneer work in this genre a la Dream Theater from 1992-1995, with a similarly humbler approach. Granted, "Timeline" isn't necessarily a humble album compared to a number of recent progressive albums that haven't entered into the wondrous world of 10 minutes plus songwriting, but it definitely lacks a lot of the technical showmanship that comes with a pure Petrucci vs. Rudess approach. There are keyboard and guitar solos littered all over this thing, but it comes off as far more rock-based and simplified, which is a fitting approach given that most of the music on here is on the mellow side, much like World Of Silence's sophomore effort "Mindscapes" but with more changes and contrast.

The area where this band definitely manages to pull it together and scores some real points is in the songwriting department, offering up a series of long-winded epics with a lot of contrasting ideas without sacrificing coherence in the process. "Mysteries" and "Tainted World" definitely come off as the most metallic of the bunch, playing off a set of fairly aggressive groove riffs that play off the heavy mixture of keyboard sounds quite nicely. Things tend to shift rather rapidly from a ballad feel to an outright dramatic set of metal ideas, but there's always a much needed eye for organization and melodic hooks that can often get lost in all the fancy gimmicks. The zenith of this band's approach comes in at the end with "Great Gathering At The End Of Days", which is all but a perfect blend of jazzy ballad sections and heavier, Dream Theater inspired ones with plenty of lead guitar and keyboard work.

With all the good things going on here, one might be content to give this thing a top rating and simply call it a day, but unfortunately this album is not without a few sizable flaws. Chief among these is the lackluster production that puts way too much emphasis on vocals and keyboards, coupled with an extremely distant drum sound and a muddled guitar sound that struggles to punch through the keyboards a lot of time. This is not altogether unexpected given that this album was independently produced and released, but at times the sound quality flirts with that of a mid 90s demo release. To a lesser extent vocalist Eetu Kinnunen becomes a liability too, as his vocal performance is adequate, yet at times sloppy and coming up short in power. Even by post-Dream Theater standards, his voice is just a little too squeaky clean and almost seems to want to go full out progressive rock like Karmakanic.

At the end of the day, the potential of this band is present, but hampered by some issues that could easily be resolved with a veteran producer like Tommy Hansen to give these guys a stronger sound. Dream Theater fans might want to follow these guys down the road if any future material comes out, but as it stands, "Timeline" isn't quite the sort of album that a typical prog. fan positively can't live without. Nevertheless, the songwriting on here is pretty impressive and avoids the over-indulgence that tends to go along with the style. But those looking for the full out experience that this is reaching for will want to stick to Dream Theater, while those looking for a heavier variation with a similar eye to detail as this band might want to check out Ethereal Architect.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on June 26, 2013.