James LaBrie – Elements of Persuasion

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InsideOut Music
Produced by James LaBrie & Matt Guillory

The first solo album (unless you count the Mullmuzzler ones) from Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie is an aggressive affair. Continuing from the recent heavy Dream Theater albums Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Train of Thought, this record also gets its point across through the medium of heavy guitars and astounding playing. All the elements are in fact there to lead you to believe that this is Dream Theater. James’ vocals are the same (excellent), the guitars are heavy, there’s a story, it’s progressive, the drums are impressive. But there’s something there, something about the way the album feels, that tells you this really is not Dream Theater. This is something different.

It lacks the class of Dream Theater. For example, the second guitar solo you hear on this album crashes in during Crucify with the subtlety and awareness of its a surroundings that a bull might have if it’s just woken up in the middle of a Slayer concert with no recollection of how it got there. Suffice to say it sounds out of place and is altogether too forceful. The first solo is excellent, and otherwise, this song is one of the highlights of the album, sounding like it was lifted straight from Dream Theater’s astonishing Train of Thought. The second offering, Alone, has a rather painful drum machine sample in it. Luckily when the guitars come in, they’re so loud and heavy you can’t really hear it anymore. And track three, Freaks, has a really bizarre effect on James’ vocals during the pre-chorus. James is obviously trying to be different, musically, to Dream Theater, but some of it unfortunately grates.

You may be feeling that this is a bad album by now. It’s not. Apart from these occasional (and they are only occasional) problems, it is a very good album. The performances of his largely unknown band are superb and James, as always, is peerless. The other major player in this record is keyboard player and guitarist Matt Guillory, who co-wrote all of the music and much of the lyrics with James. He performs about half of the guitar solos on the album and all of the keyboards. The rest of the guitar is handled by Marco Sfogli, who’s solos are better than Matt’s, for the most part. The rhythm section of Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Mangini (drums, ex-Annihilator) form a wonderfully coherent whole with the rhythm guitar in the same way that messrs Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy do for Dream Theater.

More heavy tracks come in the shape of Invisible and the driving Undecided, but James and band shine brightest in the lighter moments on tracks like Lost and Smashed. James’ soft tones are mesmerising and the more delicate guitar and piano work from Marco and Matt is beautiful, particularly on Smashed. The drums are a little too proud in the latter, though. Pretender brings back the heaviness, before Slightly Out of Reach continues the softer moments with the most expressive solo (but still too forceful for the song) so far. The lyrics for each song in the booklet also tell you which guitarist plays which solos and the ones that sound forceful and out of place all seem to be Matt Guillory. Some of Marco’s are still forceful, it’s the way it’s been mixed, but they sound more like part of the host song than Guillory’s.

Oblivious, In Too Deep and Drained round out the album, with Oblivious containing the record’s best guitar solos. In Too Deep is the “thrashiest” of the songs on offer, it’s definitely the most straight forward heavy metal song, and album closer Drained is easily the weirdest and most eclectic song. It starts with some strange sound effects and keyboards, before a very stop-start guitar riff. The chorus is more conventional, but the verses have James doing his whispered spooky vocals (Dream Theater fans will know what I mean) and have an underlying piano piece that sounds a little odd with the heavy guitar.

This album, all in all, is an excellent, very heavy, prog metal masterpiece. Dream Theater fans, and fans of progressive metal in general, need this. Fans of Ayreon‘s The Human Equation or the first Frameshift album (both with James on lead vocals) who want something a little heavier, this is for you too.

“ masterpiece ”

Tracklist: Alone / Freaks / Invisible / Lost / Undecided / Smashed / Pretender / Slightly Out of Reach / Oblivious / In Too Deep / Drained

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Progressive, James LaBrie