Valarius By now, most Prog fans should be familiar with the name James LaBrie, famous for his role in Dream Theater. So it's no surprise that what we have here is a very Dream Theater-sounding album. However, don't let that put you off, for this is a brilliant album from start to finish.

This album has a nice mixture of heavy and melodic songs, and although it sounds and feels a lot like Dream Theater, the songs themselves are a bit more straight-forward. So people who are put-off by Dream Theater's over the top instrumental sections might be a bit more content with this.

LaBrie’s vocals are in top form here, and he is clearly showing why he is one of the best vocalists out there today. Marco Sfogli’s amazing guitar skills are nicely complemented by Matt Guillory’s keyboards, and Mike Mangini (as always) does a great job keeping a solid beat behind it all.

If you’re looking for some good, quality Progressive Metal, then look no further.

Diogenes Here we are with another album by James LaBrie. It’s not really a “solo” album per se, since Matt Guillory also wrote it, but far more people know who James LaBrie is, and marketing 101 says to put the most profitable name on the record. So, a JLB solo album it is!

To be honest, I didn’t think this would be any good. I never got into Mullmuzzler and I thought Elements of Persuasion was pretty forgettable. Fortunately, LaBrie wrote some good stuff this time, exploring a new style and hitting on it for the most part. Static Impulse shows the longtime Dream Theater frontman blending a more traditional heavy metal style with modern melodic death metal elements, with sludgy riffing courtesy of Marco Sfolgi and Matt Guillory’s keyboards playing a big role. There are some harsh vocals provided by drummer Peter Wildoer, but they are used pretty sparingly; if anything, the majority of the Gothenburg influence comes from the guitar work and not the vocals. This should come as somewhat of a relief to those of you who hated unnecessary AAARRRRGGGGHHHHs from a certain someone COUGHMIKECOUGHPORTNOYCOUGHCOUGH in an aforementioned band. Hum.

As for James himself, he’s been criticized on pretty much every Dream Theater album since Falling into Infinity; his voice is either annoying, or too operatic, or too unfitting with the Dream Theater approach, or whatever. However, here his vocals are much more tolerable, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering he wrote his own vocal lines-what a concept! It should be known by now that LaBrie’s not going to be hitting any more F#s, but on Static Impulse he sounds both as confident and comfortable as he did in the old days. His slightly smaller vocal range fits the heavier sound shockingly well; if you didn’t like how he sounded compared to the music on, say, Train of Thought, you might want to give this one a shot for kicks.

Apart from LaBrie’s vocals, there aren’t really any due Dream Theater comparisons on this album. The songs are all fairly short and structured with no extended instrumental sections, which might be a bummer if that’s what you were expecting. Make no mistake about it; LaBrie’s supporting cast (Sfolgi in particular) has some chops, but they’re not playing much in the way of progressive metal on Static Impulse. There are plenty of catchy melodies, both of the keyboard and vocal variety (I TRIED! I TRIED!). The playing is still pretty tight, serving as a reminder of the experience in this lineup, yet the album largely of the “low-risk” variety. As such, it’s hard for me to say that anything on this album is a must-listen, although I find that a lot of the songs (Euphoric in particular) are catchy enough to have a permanent home in my collection.

The only major issue this album has is the order of the songs. One More Time is good, but the Wildoer’s screaming right off the bat gives the impression that Static Impulse is going to sound like some random Gothenburg band. This is not the case. On the opposite end, Coming Home is an anticlimactic album closer, being the only “soft” song on here. This whole thing is fairly negligible though, as my pickiness is easily put to rest with a simple click of “shuffle”. So, that’s that.

Obviously, if you’re a fan of LaBrie, you’re going to like this simply because his vocals are much less strained than on most Dream Theater releases. Other than that, I can’t think of anyone that will surely love this album; it’s straightforward enough to appeal to many, although it might not have enough memorability to stick. It’s pretty obvious that Static Impulse is more of a side project, and thus it isn’t an essential…but it’s very well done for this sort of thing, and it’s good for a few listens.

Andyman1125 Slightly out of touch

James Labrie’s solo effort began in the late 90s with his project/side band Mullmuzzler. The band released two official albums, one in 1999 and one in 2001. Labrie then took a break from the solo field, before coming back in 2005 with an entirely solo (with his name on the cover) album, Elements of Persuasion. The album was released shortly before Octavarium, and the album actually leaked onto Limewire prior to its release, and many mistook the album for Octavarium. The album, while sharing the same singer, has a starkly different and significantly darker feel than Labrie’s home band Dream Theater. Although the progressive metal aspect of the album is shared between the band, Labrie’s solo project is much more electronic, thrashy, and by leaps and bounds more heavy than Dream Theater. Laden with near metalcore breakdowns and near thrash metal riffs and blast beats as well as mellow ballad like tracks to contrast these, the album is a high stakes, non-stop album, full of energy and fury as Labrie and his band (which included future Dream Theater drummer Mike Magini) crafted a rather interesting, if not just a bit generic, album.

One thing that really hit me while listening to this album was the heavy accessibility Labrie is obviously striving for on this album. The odd electro beats that open many of the songs, the synthesized atmospheres encasing many of the songs, and much more of the electronic aspects of the album also add to this odd popularly leaning feel of the album. Whether this adds or detracts from the album, I still can’t decide after listening to the album for a number of years now. It’s obvious that Labrie was looking for some kind of pay with this, but was still looking to keep that progressive edge that Dream Theater is well known for (probably to attract more fans of the band; that is how I found this album!).

The great guitar work of Marco Sfogli adds both a fantastic and a bit detracting edge to the album – at times his playing is perfect for the atmosphere and feel of the song, yet at others his senseless shredding really doesn’t fit the music he’s soloing over. The whole atmosphere he has created, however, is a nice change of pace from Labrie’s traditional work, even if it is a bit on the heavy and popularly-leaning side.

Of course, this intense heavy metal is essential to get DT fans, which were just exposed to Train of Thought in 2003, to like the album. Whether Labrie was intending to produce a near progressive thrash metal album or not, the fusion of this thick music with techno-ish sounds makes for a more unique progressive metal sound. Although it still has the obvious leanings of someone who is intent on making a progressive metal album, it still is a bit of a change of the more virtuoso-esque Dream Theaterian music. Again, whether this is good or not, I can’t really tell. I like the more mature compositions of the aged Dream Theater song writers, but Labrie’s compositions aren’t all that bad. Although his lyrics are even cheesier than some of Dream Theater’s, at times they are pretty damn good.

The odd contrast to the heavy metal tracks on the album are the near cheese wheel ballads that dot the album, covered in cheesy electro beats and stereotypical Labrie ballad melodies. Although they are nice, I can’t help but laugh. The steady beat, low, breathy vocals, and lyrics so cheesy they could supply a busy deli, most of these songs are just too much for me to take. If one ignores the obvious clichés of the music, they make for nice melodious tracks, but in the end they are quite silly.

In the end, this album receives a very mixed feeling from me. Although the majority of the album is a decent progressive metal album, the album balances out with both equally cheesy and fantastic songs. Labrie, no stranger to the progressive metal genre, has crafted what many bands seem to have failed to do – a good Dream Theater clone album. Of course this may be biased seeing as Labrie is Dream Theater’s singer, but overall the music on this disc isn’t all that bad. Overall, the album is just slightly out of touch with a truly good album, yet is better than a non-essential album. I think this is a fantastic addition to any Dream Theater fan’s collection, but isn’t really necessary elsewhere. 4- stars.

AtomicCrimsonRush James Labrie’s solo album is a surprisingly heavy album, perhaps heavier than Dream Theater at times, due to very coarse gravelly death metal vocals by Matt, scattered in places. Labrie sings exactly as Dream Theater fans have heard him over the years and he is joined by those death growls in tracks such as Mislead, and One More Time, Jekyll and Hyde. The metal is melodic and fast with the traditional galloping riff, the lead breaks are well executed, and the rhythmic drum patterns are standard metal. It is very standard, each track sounding similar, not as complex or intricate as a Dream Theater album but it allows Labrie to let loose with all guns blazing. Each track is a raucous blaster until we get to the ballads such as the heartfelt sorrowful Coming Home (not a Scorpions cover). There are some proggy moments, Just Watch Me begins with a beautiful piano intro, then some crunching riffs follow, Labrie sings in his ballad voice, and it builds to an epic chorus; “no promises broken that’s for sure, no wishing and hoping I’ve finally found a cure, this time I’ll do things differently, this time I will do it, just watch me.” The lead break that follows is very well played, with fast hammering and speed sweeps. Then it settles back to the minimalist piano and finger picking guitar.

Jekyll and Hyde has a proggy instrumental with cool keyboard swirls and blastbeats of metal distortion.

Euphoric begins with quiet guitar and atmospherics on keyboards, Labrie sings gently but there is an ominous lead guitar heard, it builds to a crunching riff and chorus. Labrie sounds excellent, hitting every note, and at times it sounds like Dream Theater, though there are no long songs or any lengthy instrumentals.

The album will grow on you after a few listens but there are no brilliant tracks, nothing really stands out as a classic, and therefore not to the standard of Labrie’s other work. Overall I enjoyed the album, it was heavy with some brutal riffs, solid lead breaks, and as far as melodic metal goes it delivered. 3 stars.

lukretio Static Impulse is a collection of 12 powerful melodic metal songs - made more interesting by a very strong vocal delivery from LaBrie and by the unexpected melodic-death-metal / metalcore influences courtesy of drummer Peter Wildoer of Darkane.

The product works well, and is genuinely surprising at first - especially given that is LaBrie we’re talking about: 20 seconds into “One More Time” and you actually think you are playing the new In Flames! The musicians are obviously skilled (LaBrie vocals are excellent throughout the album) and the production is very good as well. The melodies in the choruses are strong and will stick in your head, the verses are slightly less interesting but good stuff nonetheless. Having said that – the pitfall of Static Impulse is the lack of originality in the songwriting (seriously, this is all stuff we’ve heard already somewherelse - and at times this sounds really too much like In Flames with better clean vocals). Also, there is too much of the same thing here. Note: I am not complaining that Static Impulse is not “progressive” enough – in fact after a lifetime in prog metal it is actually a good thing that LaBrie shows that he can do other stuff. The fact is that if you pick any of the 12 songs on the album chances are that it will sound exactly the same as the song before it and exactly the same as the song after it (same structure, same pace, same sound, same mood).

Don't get me wrong: this is a very solid piece of work, and there’s not a single song on the album that I dislike. At the same time, I also struggle to find songs that stand out or are truly impressive. So, I think 3 stars is a fair rating: good stuff, you’ll enjoy playing this – but I bet it won’t last in your playlist for more than one month.