Athem - The Extended Mind

Progressive Rock has historically been the domain of godlike musicians. My uncle, who got me into progressive rock, and music in general often told me stories of rare vinyls (very rare in communist Romania), from mysterious bands playing music beyond the realm of normal bands of the time. They used strange synthesizers, weird effects, made huge, titanic songs and experimented with odd song structures. The bands making this music (such as Pink Floyd, ELP or King Crimson) were held in a very high regard, and seen almost as godlike musicians, with unreachable performance skills.

That time is long gone. Progressive rock and metal bands are everywhere now, popping up like mushrooms after a very, very long rainfall. People everywhere are shredding it up on their guitars and odd time signatures are pretty much commonplace in metalcore and other modern genres. Basically, anyone can go like "Let's start a prog band, man!", and most of the time it doesn't sound bad. But needless to say, it takes a very great effort (or a very high amount of inborn originality) to become actually groundbreaking. Honestly, how many of the progressive bands that you have heard lately haven't reused classic Dream Theater riffs? How many fiddly, wanky keyboard solos with Jordan Rudess lead patches have you not heard recycled over and over and over and over again?

You get the point.

And this is where The Extended Mind comes in. This album by New Jersey based band Athem is an example of a musical project that manages to stand above the rest. Let me describe to you in a few words, to start with. This album is characterized by orgasmically ginormous, soaring vocals, very addicting melodies, melancholic vintage synths and very original lyrics.

First off, for anyone who hasn't heard Will Shaw yet, go to his YouTube channel (under the name UnflexableGrace). He has always impressed me and I was very happy to hear he had finally joined a proper band. Let me say this simply: this is without the doubt the best new progressive metal vocalist out there right now. I would like to try to compare him to other greats like James LaBrie, Russell Allen or Geoff Tate, but it is impossible. Though he cites them as influences, he sounds nothing like them, and, in quite a few ways, he surpasses them. With an impressive vocal range, incredible timbral versatility, beautiful vibrato and a hint of Broadway opera, he wails and harmonizes his way through the labyrinthine compositions on the album. For me, at least, this is the highlight of the album.

My other favorite part of The Extended Mind is the keyboards. Being a fan of old analog synths and vintage sounds, this CD is a big surprise for me in a prog world dominated by Rudess and Sherinian clones. The keyboard sounds are somewhere between analog Minimoog style sounds, 80's wavetable synths (Korg Wavestation, anyone?) and more modern stuff, but overall very vintage sounding. It sounds very, very original to me, and I absolutely love the keyboard melodies, especially in the song Wake Up Screaming. Excellent job on the keyboards.

On to guitars. I am going to have to be perfectly honest, I am not a big fan of the guitar tone. It is a bit fizzy, but not any worse than what you would hear on a Symphony X or Andromeda album. It is far from Petrucci chocolatey goodness or Ayreon-ey chugginess.But. The absolutely wonderful melodies and counterpoint, coupled with great harmonized parts and unisons between the great keyboards and the guitars are absolutely delightful. The guitar functions as more than just background riffing and a base for the singing to stand on. Together, the two guitarists work as a single voice, providing an almost symphonic layer of melody. Very nice. Being a debut album, I can forgive the tone. I don't remember the first Queensryche or Dream Theater album having an amazing guitar tone, and it is after all a matter of taste.

The bass (as is to be expected with a prog record) doesn't have a very noticeable presence during the dazzling guitar passages, and follows the riffing most of the time, but thankfully there are many parts where the bass is given the spotlight, and it is here that it shines. It's very hard to provide any kind of criticism for bassists, because they are mostly there to support the rest of the band, but Athem gives Mike Haas quite a few chances to show off his boomy bass skills. The importance off the bass guitar has been greatly reduced since the times of Rush and Geddy Lee, and it is nice to hear a new band that knows how to show give it a chance, at least in a subtle way.

Drums is where I probably have the most criticism, but not aimed towards the drummer, who does a great job. My gripe is with the choice to mask the drums with somewhat repetitive samples, especially on the snare. This worked very nicely on Dream Theater's Images and Words, but on this album there are parts where the rapid fire machine gun effect is apparent, and it is really too bad because the drumming is absolutely monstrous, especially coming from an 18 year old drummer.

A few words on the production. For an album produced in a rag-tag studio, this sounds pretty good. The vocals especially, have a very nice quality to them, a very mysterious moony, indigo quality to them. The signal to noise ratio is quite good, and the overall sound doesn't screetch and scratch at your brain. There are passages of ambient, angelic female backing vocals and soft, moving pads, combined with very good orchestral arrangements. In fact, the intro (unsurprisingly called Overture) is completely orchestral and serves as, well, an overture to the album. This symphonic sound pops up here and there on the album, and it's a nice completing touch.

How would I describe the sound of this album in a few abstract ways? I am going to go ahead and call it mysterious, gloomy, bathed in sonic twilight, experimental, dynamic, flowing, crushing, sophisticated.

Closing words... I definately recommend this album to anyone who wants to hear a new facet of progressive metal. I have listened to a lot of prog, both rock and metal, as well as more experimental varieties, and this album was a very nice treat, and you will love it. I can see this band going very far, and I can't wait to see and hear the songs played live on their tour.

Also, if you buy this album, girls will like you and make love to you.

Daniel Vera signing out.