EARTHSIDE — A Dream in Static (review)

EARTHSIDE — A Dream in Static album cover Album · 2015 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"A Dream in Static" is the debut full-length studio album by US, New England based progressive metal act Earthside. The album was independently released in October 2015. Earthside consists of four well educated and highly skilled guys, who all have college degrees in music composition and production (or other similar educational skills). It´s like reading the Dream Theater fairytale again, but these guys of course deserve to be judged on their own merits. Earthside doesn´t feature a permanent vocalist, so the band have enlisted the services of singers like Lajon Witherspoon (Sevendust), Björn Strid (Soilwork), Daniel Tompkins (Tesseract), and Eric Zirlinger (Face The King, Seer).

"A Dream in Static" features 8 tracks, and a full playing time 63:52 minutes. The album opens with the instrumental "The Closest I’ve Come", and it´s audible from the get go, that we´re dealing with incredibly skilled musicians and composers. The performances are tight and the playing technically challenging. The material are relatively varied and while there are both heavy rhyhtms and hard edged riffing on the album, there are also a lot of more atmospheric parts, which lean more towards progressive rock than progressive metal. There are even hints at post-rock which the slow building and atmospheric "Entering The Light" is an example of. The band make the use of different guest lead vocalists work pretty well. The album does however become slightly inconsistent and feels a little more like a "project" instead of a band effort, because there isn´t a designated vocalist in the band, but there is no denying that Earthside have chosen some really skilled guest vocalists who fit well with the instrumental part of the music.

"A Dream in Static" is a very well produced affair, featuring a powerful, clear, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly. Fans of the more polished and accessible type of progressive rock/metal should be thrilled with this album on all parameters from the high level performances, to the professional sound production, to the intriguing and clever compositions. To my ears Earthside need to work on a more unique sound (there´s very little here that´ll surprise fans of the genre or which sets Earthside apart from other contemporary artists), and a little more raw edge wouldn´t hurt either, but that´s a purely subjective point of view and quality wise, this is a high quality release and a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

… And the Universe Keeps Silent Death Metal
MAERE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 11 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed