Waken Eyes
Exodus
Ulterium Records
Release Date: 30 October 2015
Review by Rod Whitfield
‘Supergroups’ regularly don’t measure up to the sum of their parts. And this is unfortunately one of those times.
Waken Eyes is an ‘all-star’ prog band featuring members of Symphony X, Steven Wilson’s and Joe Satriani’s bands and others, and you would think that musical talent of that illustrious calibre would produce something magnificent. However, this album proves that incredible individual players do not necessarily make for amazing songs.
In fact, apart from the occasional exultant moment, most of the material here is kinda drab and lifeless, never really hitting great heights, chugging along at about half rat-power. Most of the music is in basic 4/4 time, which gives it a more of a rock feel. In this day and age of extreme musical complexity, truly progressive bands must do a little more with their stuff to be completely convincing.
And while the album’s closer and title track finally picks up the pace a little and runs for almost 19 minutes, it’s not enough to save this album from being a bit of a yawn. There is way better prog going around than this. And much of it emanating from our own country.
