James LaBrie - Elements Of Persuasion
InsideOut Music
Heavy Modern Prog Metal
12 songs (66'49)
Release year: 2005
James LaBrie, InsideOut Music
Reviewed by Marty
In the world of heavy metal, more specifically progressive metal, vocalist James LaBrie needs little introduction. As the front man for Dream Theater, they helped define a genre of metal that really didn't exist until their legendary Images And Words album released in the early 90's. Bands like Fates Warning had already dabbled with that sort of sound but it was Dream Theater that really got the ball rolling so to speak for the progressive metal scene. Album after album, they have delivered and with their last effort, Train Of Thought, released over two years ago, we saw Dream Theater rocking harder than ever and served us up a hard hitting heavy metal album that was received with mixed reviews by the fans. Dream Theater is about to release a new album in June entitled Octavarium that promises to be a mix of the new heavier Train Of Thought sound and the classic sound of the 90's era. Lead vocalist James LaBrie has released albums outside of Dream Theater under the moniker of Mullmuzzler and he has made guest appearances on many albums more notably last year's Ayreon album entitled The Human Equation. I thought that James' vocal performance on that album was as good as it has ever been and rivals some of the classic Dream Theater. I've found his vocals slowly taking a back seat with recent Dream Theater material and it's great to hear that he still has the range and strength in his voice as evident on the last Ayreon album and also on this new solo debut, Elements Of Persuasion. Besides producing it himself, James enlists the services of Matt Guillory (keyboards/piano/guitar) who also co-produced the album, Marco Sfgoli (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Mangini (drums).

I was more or less expecting a more laid back effort with this album and not as heavy as the Train Of Thought album.....boy was I wrong!!! With the combination of the chunky de-tuned guitars for the album opener Crucified and the stuttering Blackened style riffing layered with James' great melodic voice, you have Dream Theater meets Metallica!! The next three tracks Alone, Freak and Invisible have more of a modern metal edge complete with the use of effects looped guitars and electronic drums as well as pounding and booming heavy metal riffs. The keyboards are kept to a minimum and are really only used for atmospheric effects. The blistering metal pace that permeates the first four tracks comes to an abrupt halt with the track Lost. With its jazzy piano and drums shuffle, James' "breathy" vocal captures the mood perfectly and it's a track that is well suited for his voice. The classic Dream Theater sound makes brief appearances more notably with tracks like Undecided and Pretender. Undecided uses a pounding heavy riffing style with some synthesizer effects and it has the sort of soaring vocal, solid lead guitar work and musical intensity that is a staple of the DT sound. Pretender has a better mix of melody and heaviness again, reminiscent of classic Dream Theater. With the track Smashed, we get the type of song that I was expecting with this album. A more laid back ballad style track, it features piano, drums and acoustic guitars as well as a great reflective vocal by James. Things really come together with the track Slightly Out Of Reach. A lighter track initially with acoustic guitar and piano, it builds into a great soaring track with emotional lead guitar and a chorus that's just incredible....the kind you can't get out of your head. Very few of the songs on this album come close to Dream Theater quality but this one sounds like something that could've been on the Images And Words album. With Oblivious, we see things geting back to the trudging, modern heavy metal sound that's found throughout this album. James' rich and melodic vocals are combined with crunching heavy guitar and the use of electronic vocal effects, further heighten the modern edge to this one. In Too Deep is a solid and atmospheric track that incorporates some speedy thrash metal stylings and the album ends with Drained, the one track that really has a true prog metal sound to it with it's mix of heavy riffs and keyboards. The production on this album is flawless. The riffs are booming and heavy with a tight bottom end and the voices, piano and acoustic guitar passages all have the kind of crispness that most bands would kill for.

I was quite surprised at just how crunching heavy and modern sounding this album is. Dream Theater has been known to perform classic metal albums such as Number Of The Beast and Master Of Puppets in their entirety at special shows so it should come as no surprise at the band's fondness for heavy metal. I'm not a big fan of the de-tuned guitar sound. It's O.K. to tune down to E flat for extra chunkiness but tuning down further to D or even C# takes away all sense of originality as many of today's newer modern metal and metalcore bands are doing that. It's cool that James has kept his ears open to the new metal sounds and his voice really does sound solid and strong throughout the album. There's several tracks that really stand out from the others as far as quality but there's far too many "average" ones for this album to deserve a higher score. Looking back at Train Of Thought, I still like the album but I prefer the richer melodic DT sound. What's missing from Elements Of Persuasion is the sound of his other DT band mates. More stripped down in it's approach, many will applaud the lack of prog wankery usually found with some Dream Theater material but in this case, without the added touches that his DT band mates bring to the material they do with James, some of this album comes off as cold and uninspiring. Make no mistake though, it's great to hear such crunching heavy music with decent vocals let alone those of someone like James LaBrie. The tracks I like the best are those where he does more melodic DT style material as it more suits his voice. Unfortunately there just aren't enough of those types of tracks on this album for my tastes. A very good album by today's standards, I suggest that fans of DT or James LaBrie check out samples of this album before making the decision to buy.....you will be surprised....pleasantly or not.....

Killing Songs :
Crucify, Lost, Undecided, Slightly Out Of Reach and Drained
Marty quoted 75 / 100
Other albums by James LaBrie that we have reviewed:
James LaBrie - Static Impulse reviewed by Crash and quoted 75 / 100
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