Darkwater - Calling the earth to witness 3.5/5
Reviewed: 7-27-07
Tracklist:
1. 2534167
2. All eyes on me
3. Again
4. Habit
5. The play - I
6. The play - II
7. Shattered
8. Tallest tree
9. In my dreams
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Some of you may be familiar with the Swedish band Harmony and their debut 'Dreaming awake' from 2003, a CD on the lighter side of melodic power metal that's easily comparable to bands like Stormwind. This is relevant because Darkwater is a new band created by 4 of the 5 members of Harmony. Though Harmony is still active (at least to my knowledge), it's obvious why these guys have chosen to start up an entirely new band; the style of Darkwater's debut 'Calling the earth to witness' is not a power metal CD, but instead wanders throughout the realm of progressive metal.
Much of the material on 'Calling the earth to witness' can be lumped in the standard progressive metal style of bands like Dream Theater, but the CD is quite heavy with symphonic highlights, so both Symphony X and Suspyre come to mind as well. There are even a few quick instances where Evergrey-like parts pop up, and because of the CD's heaviness and references to these other bands (I have and enjoy all of the CDs from these bands), I've found myself liking this debut a lot, even though I'm much more of a power metal fan (as regular readers of my writing already know).
All of the songs on 'Calling the earth to witness' are very strong and not even one could be considered weak. Unfortunately, the CD is a lengthy 68 minutes and since the opener "2534167" is just a short instrumental (intro), 8 tracks are stretched into the remainder. So all of the songs hover around the 8-minute mark (containing many time changes and a good amount of instrumental parts), and while progressive metal fans are surely fine with this, I need to make sure I'm in the right mood to throw the CD in my player, as my tastes are much more suited for shorter songs with memorable choruses and less instrumental parts.
Still, this is one of those progressive metal CDs that could be heavy/catchy enough to please fans of all styles of metal and it should bring in a nice variety if progressive metal is not usually your thing. Though I could never get into progressive metal like I have power metal, I'm very glad that I've experienced Suspyre's 'A great divide' and now Darkwater's 'Calling the earth to witness' recently. So I'll continue to just dabble in the progressive metal genre (particularly the heavier/catchier bands), and just like with my review for Suspyre's 'A great divide', major progressive metal fans may want to envision an even higher rating.
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