Disforia is a modern progressive power
metal band that comes from the US, and despite this origin, their primary
influence is straight from Germany. “The Age of Ether”, their debut full-length,
is an ode to later Blind Guardian (post-Imaginations), and even features an
appearance from Hansi on one of the later tracks. Despite this nod to one of
Germany’s best, Disforia can show their own sound at times as well. The main
factor that draws the comparison to Blind Guardian is vocalist John Yelland.
While not a dead ringer for Hansi, he has a similar sound to Hansi’s less
nasally moments. In addition, the use of vocal layering (and really the layers
of instruments as a whole) brings in that epic choir-like feel.
The band is at their best on the shorter
tracks. These songs are more straightforward and a lot catchier. This preference
likely comes from my dislike of progressiveness, but sometimes things are just
hard to follow when you have an hour of material and relatively loose song
structures. A track like “Dream Eater” is a great example of how progressive influences
can creep into a song without overwhelming it. In fact, despite being a bit too
dominated by keyboards, “Dream Eater” is by far the best song on the album. The
song has a brief appearance of harsh vocals (that are also present in other
tracks on the album), but what really drives the track is the brilliant lead
guitar work underneath the chorus. It has a very rocking feel to it, and is
something you don’t hear too often in metal, particularly in power and progressive metal, which
are a bit more calculated and precise than this.
Unfortunately after this track, the album
takes a bit of a turn for the worse. There is an onslaught of tracks that
exceed 8 minutes, and while there are a lot of interesting ideas present in
these songs, they ultimately lack focus. This disregard to standard song
structures is of course a major part of the appeal to progressive music, but
the band showed so much promise on earlier tracks like “Chaos” and “Dream Eater”
that it is a bit frustrating to see them take this direction. Regardless of my
dislike of this style, there are still a lot of great elements to Disforia. No
matter what else is happening in a song, Yelland’s vocals are always enjoyable.
His voice is almost preferable to Hansi’s simply because it is cleaner. Another
great element of this music is that there is almost always a cool riff going
on. While progressive tendencies sometimes lead to riffless bands, Disforia has
plenty of riffs to offer, and they use them often enough that the music doesn’t
get stale. Hansi’s appearance on “The Dying Firmanent” is interesting because
if you are listening to the album as background noise, you won’t even notice
it. Yelland sounds similar enough that you could definitely mistake him for
Hansi. Nevertheless, these singers sound great together.
On the whole, “The Age of Ether” is a
perfectly enjoyable record. The only reason for my negativity in this review is
because of my extremely strong preference of power metal over progressive
metal. Disforia does both sounds incredibly well. There are some interludes,
but they are never intrusive to the point of ruining a song, nor do they lead
to a situation where there is 4 or 5 minutes without music. They blend into the
atmosphere created by “The Age of Ether” perfectly. If you’re looking for
later-era Blind Guardian with even more prog influence, Disforia will
definitely appeal to you.
Highlights
"Chaos"
"Dream Eater"
"The Dying Firmament"
Final Rating
3.75/5 or 75%.
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