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Metal/Prog Metal CD Reviews

Superscream The Engine Cries Review by Gary Hill These guys at times skirt the boundary between progressive rock and metal. Overall, though, they land on the metal side of that equation. This album is diverse and dynamic set that just plain rocks. I'd love to hear more from these guys. If this is any indication, this is an act to follow. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2018 Volume 1 at garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2018.

Track by Track Review

Cubozoas' Gossips This starts rather atmospheric and grows out gradually. It's just a short mellow introductory piece.

Evil Cream Powering out with some seriously metallic guitar, this screams forward from there. This is a heavy metal based powerhouse. This screamer is catchy and meaty.

The Engine Cries (Superscreamrise) There is still a lot of metal built into this, but more on the melodic epic metal side of the spectrum. That said, we get enough proggy tendencies to keep it from fitting wholly under heavy metal. This is perhaps closer to Wolverine and other acts like that. The fast paced jam later in the piece is quite metallic. The technical guitar soloing brings some really classical music elements.

Pandora Another with a lot of classical and metal elements, this is another powerhouse cut. It's meaty and yet packed with emotion and power. This is one of the highlights of the set. I love the spoken segment later. It brings a sense of evil to this.

Velvet Cigarette Another screamer, this one is really heavy metal. It's built on a killer riff that moves this way and that alternated with a dropped back vocal section. There is a spoken bit later that makes me think of "The Monster Mash" meets "Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Your Necklace of Bites I love this song. It's a power-ballad type of track. It's dark and moody. It has a great balance between mellower and more rocking stuff.

Ways Out Balladic modes and more are on hand at the opening of this cut. At almost nine-and-a-half minutes of music, this is the epic of the set. As it continues there are hints of psychedelic rock in the mix. It grows organically into something very cool. There are parts of this that make me think of Godsmack just a bit. The rising kind of riff progression feels familiar for some reason. Around the four-and-a-half minute mark world music sounds take over for a time. The cut grows back toward the metal with more of that element on display. More world music emerges later in the piece. This piece just keeps shifting and changes. It's the most prog oriented thing on the disc in a lot of ways.

Where's My Mom? This is a pure metal stomper. It's mean, but also creative in that it drops back to a rhythm section based part at times. The chorus is made up with death style vocals. There is a cool jazzy break later in the piece, though.

Metal Builders This is a powerhouse stomper that is mean and also quite intriguing. It has some interesting changes.

Insane God Now, if the whole disc was like this, I would land it under the progressive rock heading. It's a powerful piece with a lot of emotion and vibe to it. It's a killer cut with some Dream Theater along with progressive metal built into it. It's one of the strongest cuts here.

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