Detailed Reviews [Heaven's Cry - 2002 - "Primal Power Addiction"]

Heaven's Cry (Canada) - 2002 - "Primal Power Addiction"
(51 min, "DVS" / "CD-Maximum")

Preamble. For some reason, I am almost sure that the founder of Heaven's Cry and that Pierre St-Jean, who was the bassist for the famous Canadian Prog-Metal band Voivod at the second phase of their most progressive period (from 1991 to 1993), are the same person. Which is not only because both of these bands are from the same city of Montreal and the artwork of the "Primal Power Addiction" CD, which is of quite a specific fantastically futuristic character.

The Album. The music on "Primal Power Addiction" doesn't remind me of heaven's cry at all. Also, there is nothing on this album that I could associate with a primal power. On the other hand, I can even assert that while this music doesn't contain any obvious influences and is very original and in many ways unique, the spirit of a cosmic Voivod (Voevode means Commander in Russian) is - some marvelous way - sensible here. Which, in addition, is despite the fact that on the whole, the contents of the debut Heaven's Cry album are less heavy than those on any of the works by the band exploring the remote, fantastically fantastic, progressive worlds under the banner of that legendary intergalactic conquistador. (I guess this 'banner' is somewhat of Jolly Roger of cosmic oceans. And I think that only the real fans of Voivod will be able to sense 'his' spirit on the album, which is the hero of this review.) Also, Heaven's Cry's "Primal Power Addiction" is an album, which is both highly complex and intriguing. The stylistics of it is not uniform, and in detail, it looks the next way. In all, there are eleven songs on this album and only two of them are about Prog-Metal with elements of a guitar-based Art-Rock: Masterdom's Profit and A High Moral Ground (2 & 5). What's central however is that the solos of acoustic guitar play for the most part a real prominent role on the album - along with those of electric and bass guitars. On both of the said songs, the solos of acoustic guitar are wonderfully interwoven with heavy musical textures, all of which sounds highly innovative throughout each of them - as well as the album as whole. Back to heavy structures, there are not enough of them on "Primal Power Addiction" to call the overall stylistics of it as (even) a blend of Art-Rock and Prog-Metal. This very combination of genres is typical for the following three songs: Remembrance (7), 2K Awe Tick, and Beds Are Burning, both of the latter of which are the album's opening and closing tracks. A highly intricate guitar-based Art Rock with elements of both of Prog-Metal and Symphonic Art-Rock, which is available on the album thanks to the active and very effective use of guitar-synth, is present here on five compositions. These are A New Paradigm, Divisions, Komma, One of 24, and Waves (3, 4, 6, 8, & 9). While the remaining song, The Inner Stream Remains (10), is entirely about a classic, yet, highly original guitar-based (mostly acoustic guitar-based, though) Art-Rock with elements of Symphonic Art-Rock. As for the level of complexity of Heaven's Cry's music and, in some ways, the spectrally structural aspects of it, I think these can be compared to those of Voivod's 17-minute Jack Luminous (from "The Outer Limits"), which is undoubtedly the best composition of that band. Back to the effective use of guitar-synth on this album, here, you'll hear not only the synthesizer-like passages and solos, but also the piano-like passages and chords.

Summary. The exclamation "Magic!" is applicable to most, if not all, songs that Heaven's Cry presented on "Primal Power Addictions". This album should be of a great interest of any true connoisseur of Progressive Rock - regardless of whether you're exclusively into Art-Rock or Prog-Metal. This absolute masterpiece - one of the most original albums that I've heard in the new millennium and the best CD ever released by DVS Records - gets, of course, nothing else but my highest recommendations.

VM: January 13, 2003