Time Signature Rites of passage...

Genre: progressive metal

With one EP under their best, British prog-metallers Opposing Motion released their debut album "Laws of Motion" earlier this year. The debut is was released on Lars Eric Mattsson's label Lion Music, which has a quite considerable roster of progressive metal bands.

The band was formed in 2005, and, naturally, they have a considerable amount of experience, which is definitely reflected in both the performance and the songwriting on the album. Throughout "Laws of Motion", the listener is guided through a eight dynamically structured tracks which offer both crushingly heavy riffs and ensnaring melodies. in particular, there seems to be an influence from Iron Maiden which is reflected in the melodic aspect of the album. Drawing on power metal, Opposing Motion treats the listener to massive and epic choruses and generally pleasing vocal melodies.

Sadly, the album suffers from a terrible production - at least on the copy I have. The entire mix simply simply too muddy, and the overall mastering is too distorted. This type of production may have worked fine on Defiled's notorious "In Crisis", but for progressive metal this type of messy production simply ruins the listening experience.

Musically, we are dealing with a really well put together progressive metal album with plenty of elements from power metal and traditional metal. Producton-wise, the album is a near catastrophe. I mean, it is not totaly unlistenable, but it does take a cople of songs before the ear gets used to the trashy sound. I sencerely hope that Opposing Motion get the chance to remaster this album, because the music on it deserves it.