Persistence

The German progressive metal scene is a very difficult scene to nail down, mostly due to the fact that the country has been tilted a bit more towards thrash, death, and power metal. Bands such as Assignment and Source Of Silence exist without any sort of label support to speak of, and listen almost as if they developed their sounds without any set format of emulation, resulting in something radically different to the accepted norms of progressive metal as it might be defined in the States where Dream Theater tends to set the trend, or in Scandinavia where bands such as Opeth offer a more extreme variant on the style. The Bavarian outfit Perennial Quest lives up to this German sense of nonconformity and provides yet another distinct range of possibilities to this challenging metal genre.

Much like Assignment this band pushes the style a bit closer to a power/thrash variant, combining a healthy dose of methodically heavy riff sections with the usual mixture of jazz influences, melodic yet technical progressions, and eclectic rock emulations. What results is something that is a bit hard to follow at first, but eventually unfolds into a pretty original yet accessible listening experience. The ballad sections tend to touch a wide range of influences both old and recent, be it the Goo Goo Dolls sounding intro to their near half hour long epic “A Perennial Quest”, or the 80s piano ballad intro to “Rise Again”. Meanwhile some of the heavier sections on songs like “Take Off The Mask” go a tiny bit into a sort of groove metal/metalcore interlude.

The album basically starts on a high note, cranking out solid metal riff work to lead off a host of stylistic twists and meter shifts and keeping the guitar in its proper place at the helm. Right from the opening chords of “Dream Over”, the band basically leads you to believe that they are going for something along the lines of Dominici’s “O3 A Trilogy, Part 2” album rather than the quasi-melodic, super percussive stuff Dream Theater has been tied up in of late. The bulk of the song maintains a somewhat mysterious atmosphere, playing off a gloomy rock organ drone with a series of solid speed metal sections and softer interludes. But in spite of its stylistic complexity, it still listens like a coherent song rather than a mess of technical sections thrown together simply to impress.

As the album progresses, the heavier and faster approach tapers off slightly to make room for more rock and ballad influences. “Believe In You” definitely puts melody and consonance at the helm during the chorus, and even puts in an acoustic section that invokes images of mid-70s rock ballads. “Inside Out” gets even closer to full ballad territory with a huge amount of piano presence, but has a little bit more riff presence than the last song, before it jumps into off-the-cuff jazz/metal fusion during the guitar solo and post-solo bridge. At first listen this song almost sounds akin to the concept of snow tires on a pickup truck in Ecuador, but repeated listens reveals a sort of eclectic charm and a surprisingly easy to follow scheme of sections.

The only flaw on here is that sometimes it gets just a little too ambitious in its desire to be progressive, and gets convoluted towards the middle of the album. Individual sections of these songs can be immediately recalled with ease, but with the exception of the first 3 songs and the extremely catchy mid-tempo anthem “The Way To Your Heart”, which is the best song on here in spite of being the simplest, a lot of this album is experienced more than it is heard. Experienced music can be very enjoyable depending on what you look for, but if you want something that screams classic and sticks in your mind, this approach to music comes up a little short. The songs are well organized and definitely can be followed, but the ambitious contrasts in style on some of these songs work against each other and come off as meandering. It’s mostly noticeable on the 28 minute monster “A Perennial Quest”, which is more than 1/3 of the entire album in duration.

If you move in progressive metal circles and if you like 70s progressive rock with a bit more technique and attitude, this is worth a pick up. For an independent release by a not very well known outfit, this is quite impressive by all standards. The singer definitely has a distinctive style that is maybe slightly similar to Goran Edman, the arrangement is tight, and we have a few songs on here that could be qualified as potential classics. Hopefully the German recording industry will take note of this album and give these guys support, because there is definitely an audience for this.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on January 31, 2009.