EMPYRIA "The Long Road Home" Reviews as they come.
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Sea Of Tranquility:
The Long Road Home is a collection of new, previously played live tracks that were never released, and earlier demos complete with some futuristic artwork, from Canadian metallers Empyria. This band have existed for quite a while having started in 1991, and released five other CDs, their last back in 2002, so now after quite a lengthy break between releases, they have returned with this new CD. Each song was performed as full takes, so the notes read, certainly giving the album a different feel to the norm.
Empyria's website labels their music as power/progressive, on hearing The Long Road Home I found Empyria's music to be quite melodic, powerful and easy to get into. Though the progressive aspect is there on this CD, it's not excessively complex, and there's more of a mix of hard rock and metal. Also worth mentioning are the very dominating vocals of Phil leite, this is one vocalist who knows how apply his strong and distinctive voice.
"The Endless Circle" is a sturdy opener with a fetching solo section, following next with the very catchy "False Witness". Track three "No Other Way" demonstrates Empyria's diversity, and "Returning Home" concludes The Long Road Home being one of this CDs best. The Long Road Home has its share of well composed and appealing songs, and it's nice to hear band with their own sound, Empyria are one that surely has theirs.
Added: August 14th 2009
Reviewer: Scott Jessup
Score: 4/5
Related Link: Band Website
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Rock In Review:
EMPYRIA are a criminally underrated prog metal band hailing from Canada. It's been eighteen years since the band arrived on the scene and since then they have been constantly touring, writing and recording and have released a few stellar albums. It's been seven long years since the last album 2002's SENSE OF MIND, which saw the band loose some fans for lack of their usual prog sound. Sounding refreshed and hungry again, 2009's THE LONG ROAD HOME is back to the sound they do best and is the best album of their career to date.
Whilst this is definitely a progressive metal release, it's still quite accessable to the casual metal listener as there is no over the top epics and as a matter of fact the longest song on the album is the seven minute closing track RETURNING HOME. Some of the highlight tracks are FALSE WITNESS, WITHOUT WITHIN, THE ENDLES CIRCLE and personal favourite LAST RITES.
Vocalist PHIL LEITE has a great voice for this type of stuff and sounds like a mix of GEOFF TATE and OZZY OSBOURNE.
The rest of the band all sound great and are all obviously very technically gifted musicians.
The songwriting is tight and to the point, with just enough space in each track for some prog goodness without going into wankery territory.
This a great album by a band that seemed to have dissapeared off the radar and should help them regain their lost ground and hopefully get the recognition they deserve.
Good purchase for fans of ILLUSION SUITE and CIRCUS MAXIMUS
Rock In Review (Aug. 11th 2009)
Score 8/10
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Gravgang (Norway) 8/10
ZeeZee Dawsons Reviews (U.S.) 4/5
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Sea Of Tranquility:
The Long Road Home is a collection of new, previously played live tracks that were never released, and earlier demos complete with some futuristic artwork, from Canadian metallers Empyria. This band have existed for quite a while having started in 1991, and released five other CDs, their last back in 2002, so now after quite a lengthy break between releases, they have returned with this new CD. Each song was performed as full takes, so the notes read, certainly giving the album a different feel to the norm.
Empyria's website labels their music as power/progressive, on hearing The Long Road Home I found Empyria's music to be quite melodic, powerful and easy to get into. Though the progressive aspect is there on this CD, it's not excessively complex, and there's more of a mix of hard rock and metal. Also worth mentioning are the very dominating vocals of Phil leite, this is one vocalist who knows how apply his strong and distinctive voice.
"The Endless Circle" is a sturdy opener with a fetching solo section, following next with the very catchy "False Witness". Track three "No Other Way" demonstrates Empyria's diversity, and "Returning Home" concludes The Long Road Home being one of this CDs best. The Long Road Home has its share of well composed and appealing songs, and it's nice to hear band with their own sound, Empyria are one that surely has theirs.
Added: August 14th 2009
Reviewer: Scott Jessup
Score: 4/5
Related Link: Band Website
-----------------------------------
Rock In Review:
EMPYRIA are a criminally underrated prog metal band hailing from Canada. It's been eighteen years since the band arrived on the scene and since then they have been constantly touring, writing and recording and have released a few stellar albums. It's been seven long years since the last album 2002's SENSE OF MIND, which saw the band loose some fans for lack of their usual prog sound. Sounding refreshed and hungry again, 2009's THE LONG ROAD HOME is back to the sound they do best and is the best album of their career to date.
Whilst this is definitely a progressive metal release, it's still quite accessable to the casual metal listener as there is no over the top epics and as a matter of fact the longest song on the album is the seven minute closing track RETURNING HOME. Some of the highlight tracks are FALSE WITNESS, WITHOUT WITHIN, THE ENDLES CIRCLE and personal favourite LAST RITES.
Vocalist PHIL LEITE has a great voice for this type of stuff and sounds like a mix of GEOFF TATE and OZZY OSBOURNE.
The rest of the band all sound great and are all obviously very technically gifted musicians.
The songwriting is tight and to the point, with just enough space in each track for some prog goodness without going into wankery territory.
This a great album by a band that seemed to have dissapeared off the radar and should help them regain their lost ground and hopefully get the recognition they deserve.
Good purchase for fans of ILLUSION SUITE and CIRCUS MAXIMUS
Rock In Review (Aug. 11th 2009)
Score 8/10
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Gravgang (Norway) 8/10
ZeeZee Dawsons Reviews (U.S.) 4/5
