Cloned

Once upon a time, in a galaxy not very far away (Los Angeles, California, to be precise) two young budding jedi… sorry, guitar players, namely Kragen Lum and Vince Levalois, decided to give their brethren from the Bay-Area a helping shoulder, largely in an attempt to keep the fading thrash movement from over there alive in the early-90’s. A very appropriately-titled (“Lifeforce”), nearly half an hour of intense, also intelligent razor-sharp old school thrashisms by all means did make a few heads turn, but in gruesome, inhospitable times like those one could only do that much before laying down the light sabres…

not for long, though, not for long; the guys’ fighting spirit knows no rest, and soon they regrouped under the moniker here, a transition from the previous one, Psychosis, for the production of a string of solid demos. The majority of the material from them has been compiled on the effort reviewed here, a spell-binding work of technical/progressive power/thrash straddling between the new and the old school in a way at times reminiscent of Nevermore. However, the guitar work here is more technical and more contrived the guys creating bouts of dizzying riff-vortexes that spiral in and out of existence, the complicated musical setting greatly helped by Levalois’ outstanding emotional, clean mid-ranged vocals, a major departure from his less expressive, rowdier James Hetfield-esque delivery on the Psychosis opus.

Thankfully, the cutting sharp edge of the guitars from the Psychosis effort has been preserved to a fair extent with "Transcendent Velocity" unleashing a fountain of heavy intricate riffage, also establishing the dominant mid-paced layout the latter receiving a great, both melodic and faster-paced, boost from the superb "Mind in Motion", a shredder of the highest order which also boasts spell-binding Steve DiGiorgio-like bass performance. The bass player remains a major music provider throughout including on the shorter, marginally more immediate material (the rigorous “Synthespian”, the more diverse “Seed”) these moments opposing elaborately-woven progressivers like “Shine” which piles exquisite steel riff after another in a dizzying succession the balladic respites more than welcome, this particular alternation also quite typical for the Zero Hour and Andromeda works, here also witnessed on another labyrinthine highlight, “Dead of Jericho”, this very effective slow-burner also featuring a stupendous alluring surreal intro before gradual pounding templates start propelling the entangled plot forward, with deep atmospheric undercurrents wrapping the dark brooding setting.

Although there were moments (the brilliant “Cold Is This God” which was later remastered for the “Continuum” opus) from the Psychosis album that hinted at bigger musical prowess, the upgrade here is so big in nearly every aspect that the listener may not be sure initially that these are the same musicians who were, and still are as the Psychosis saga has been given another go in the new millennium, behind this first showing. The guys present themselves as very dexterous shredders alongside those from the Shrapnel catalogue even with these super-intricate riff-formulas, the appearance of the effort here almost coinciding with the release of the Zero Hour debut as both acts’ repertoires are built on a fairly similar template, the latter being more brooding and introspective, and a bit more complex. Prototype are the more thrash-prone of the two, in a way akin to Nevermore again, with a more brutal engine running underneath these complicated vistas, switching onto full-blooded headbanging histrionics more than just occasionally although the headbangers shouldn’t expect such bashes to extend into a whole composition.

The full-length debut focused on sprawling progressive, largely jazz and fusion-induced, layouts losing the more aggressive thrashy bite the latter only heard on the three tracks from here which were included seemingly as an energetic boost to the over-complicated proceedings. It was consequently a disappointment of some sorts, but the sophomore brought all the thrashy vigour back for an exhilarating, multifarious listen, again enhanced by cuts from this EP, that could be considered the band’s finest hour although “Catalyst”, which arrived six years later, was another strong showing with more clinical, more dispassionate guitar work.

The guys elevated their profile afterwards by providing soundtracks to several popular video games these pieces collected on the “The Way It Ends–Video Game” EP, all of them taken from the band’s works including two (“Synthespian”, “Mind in Motion”) from the EP reviewed here. This remains their last production so far, and with the revived Psychosis (two EP’s released) it’s not very certain when the Prototype saga would provide something new to its fans; with their main rivals Nevermore and Zero Hour both gone, the guys shouldn’t waste too much time with "psychotic" tributes to the retro thrash roster; this other, more challenging branch from the music industry is calling out for a new leader right now… and it won’t settle for a mere prototype.