The T 666
A very auspicious debut album that, sadly, never got a follow-up.
Donahue's talents in the guitar are clearly the star of this show. The heavily DREAM THEATER-influenced progressive metal of this project leaves a lot of room for soloing in the 10 tracks that make this album. The music is very entertaning yet not really original, since it borrows from the biggest names in the genre, and it never ventures to more experimental territories. The guitar is the instrument in charge of carrying this album home, as well as LaBrie's excellent vocals, which give this music a strong hint of MULLMUZZLER, the side project that the canadian singer had with musicians like Matt Guillory or Matt Mangini a few years ago.
The emphasis on melody is strong here, though, again, while there are some great hooks here and there, the experience is not satisfactory all the way through. There are some lower points were the album starts to dwell into irrelevance, only to be saved by the mightly fingers of the very skilled guitarist.
MADMEN AND SINNERS could be a welcome addition to any metal fan's collection, though it will not be the most original one. But in the end, the good outweighs the little bad, and the album scores three solid stars from me.