Artension - Into The Eye Of The Storm Tracklist: 1. World Of Illusion 2. Into The Eye Of The Storm 3. Smoke And Fire 4. The Wind And The Rain 5. Lost Memory 6. The Key 06:35 7. Song Of The Desert 8. Red's Recovery 9. Let It Ride 10. I Don't Care.
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Into the Eye of the Storm itself may not be regarded as a seminal album, but it did play a significant part in launching the careers of almost everyone involved. It serves as the introduction of keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij and guitarist Roger Staffelbach, but it also was one of the first albums to feature vocalist John West and drummer Mike Terrana. Since the latter pair were into their thirties at the time and would go on to each appear in over a dozen other places, the formation of Artension not only gave these guys stability that would keep most of them in the fold for another half-dozen albums in fairly short order, but also provided a platform where the talents of everyone here were showcased to good effect. Indeed, one cannot listen to Into the Eye of the Storm and fail to be impressed with the technical prowess displayed by every member, even bassist Kevin Chown. Artension has ended up as a fairly noteworthy band in neoclassical metal circles, not only because of the greener pastures most of its membership went on to, but also because its approach was a bit unique and ahead of its time. The style here is a bit hard to pin down: the songs are too long and wacky to be true power metal, but they’re too similar structurally, generally following standard verse-chorus formats, to qualify as particularly progressive. Rather, what tends to dominate the style here is a fusion influence, both in the dominance of Kuprij’s retro organ and synth sounds and in the wandering, vaguely jammy character of the fairly lengthy instrumental breaks in each piece. Basically, take Dragonforce’s song structures, make the tempo less extreme and more typical for power metal, and mix Yngwie and fusion influences in equal measure, and you end up with a decent approximation of the sound here. The wandering self-indulgence that comes with that influence set threatens to make such a sound fall prey to formless wankery, but thankfully, the songs on Into the Eye of the Storm generally have a solid set of melodies, not to mention a powerful unifying force in West’s voice. Those who only know him from later work will be surprised by his approach here: it’s extremely gritty and powerful, but also distinctly bluesy, which meshes well with some of the fusion influences behind him. The sheer force of West’s performance carries a number of these tracks, so though the music is set up to emphasize the instruments, it is often the vocals that leave the most lasting impression amid all the noodling. That’s not to say that the performance of the instruments embodies mindless technicality; it’s just that the jammy, keyboard-dominated sound here isn’t all that focused. In particular, what Into the Eye of the Storm really lacks is any sort of dominant riff presence from Staffelbach. The rhythm guitars are mixed low, and they rarely are playing much of note anyway, just typically serving as a bland counterpoint to Kuprij’s organ runs. This tends to give a lot of the sections, especially the frequent guitar and key solos, a distinct lack of propulsion. At most, what Staffelbach provides is basic sixteenth-note chord changes, like in the verses in “Song of the Desert,” but even that fails to do much other than move the music along without getting in the way. While the lack of notable riffing is a distinct negative here, that doesn’t mean that the music doesn’t work, just that the instruments generally coast along pleasantly (an extremely busy coast, but a coast nonetheless) rather than reaching any climactic moments. The effect is pretty consistent throughout Into the Eye of the Storm, so there aren’t any moments of total stagnation, but the instruments end up serving as an adequate, albeit quite technically impressive, accompaniment to the vocals. Kuprij and Staffelbach's frequent solo tradeoffs have the expected neoclassical flavor, and Terrana and Chown play a lot of quirky and interesting rhythm patterns that push the music out of standard power metal aesthetics in keeping with Kuprij's busy key lines. It's interesting music to unpack if you want to nerd out over it, at least--there's certainly a lot going on in all of these tracks. With the instruments generally staying at a consistent level of quality throughout the disc, it is the quality of the melodies and West's vocals that tends to determine whether the songs are highlights or filler. “Into the Eye of the Storm,” “The Wind and the Rain,” and “The Key” are the best things here, with expressive vocal performances and interesting instrumental touches. “Smoke and Fire” brings the fusion influences to the forefront with some interesting results, and “Song of the Desert” follows a clearer power metal template that points toward Kuprij’s later work in Ring of Fire. Instrumental “Red’s Recovery” holds up surprisingly well and balances the instruments better than most of the other tracks. Production is a bit spotty here, as the album has that overly dry sound that a lot of Shrapnel releases share; West in particular has been vocal about his dislike of the sounds here. The biggest issue is Terrana’s kit, which ends up being pretty distracting in its dryness, especially with how busy his approach is. West’s vocals could also use a bit more reverb, and of course more rhythm guitar presence would have been nice to round the sound out more (though this is as much a songwriting issue as a production one). On the plus side, you can clearly hear all the instruments, and particularly Chown’s bass plays a very central role in this music, as he actually lays down the most memorable performances of the instrumentalists on a number of these cuts. Though it’s not a perfect album, Into the Eye of the Storm gets a lot right, as it unites five extremely talented musicians and features tracks that are both adventurous and melodic. It captures West’s voice near the peak of its powers while also serving as one of the better examples of keyboard-dominated metal. It’s not the band’s highest achievement—that honor goes to Phoenix Rising--but it clearly lays out why all of these guys have been so in demand in the industry in the following two decades. ![]() Comments are closed.
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December 2022
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