REVIEWS:
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(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
HIGH POINTS: Test Of Wills, Time, Tears Of The Wind, The Naked Mind. LOW POINTS: The Quest
I heard it said that if Queensryche had not sold out they would have eventually released this album. There are several reasons that people say this, the most obvious one being that the singer here is a complete Geoff Tate clone. A successful one at that. I would usually say that guys like this should be shot, but you have no idea how perfectly this man matches Tate's voice and style. Chris Salinas has apparently been a Tate fan forever, and decided he would be the next one. And the band have their own unique style too. It took a little time to get used to, but once it did it was easy to see that this music is awesome. Power Of Omens have the goal of redefining progressive metal, and that goal can easily be heard on Eyes Of The Oracle, as they play their own unique style.
The songs on here are good, not a single truly weak track in sight ("The Quest" comes close, though, as it is far too short to be truly enjoyable). Lots of epic songs, three that are over ten minutes long, four that rang efrom four-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half, and a couple really short songs that are just over a minute long. It's a true progressive rock album, and a great one at that. We start out with the line "Waiting for the final hour, Waiting for the final hour" being repeated for about a minute through the track "Inner Voices" with heavy drums and synths and other lines coming in and being chanted as well. What a moody way to start of this album. The first 'real track' on the album is "Alone I Stand" which has some incredible bass lines in it to accompany the first taste of Eyes Of The Oracle.
I don't want to go into every single track on the album, so I'll just mention a couple more. "Time" is cool, with a long moody intro, building up to an all around spectacular entry. Closing the album is a nice and beautiful instrumental track focused on the beautiful guitar work of David Gallegos mixed in with some pretty synth lines from Andrew Sanchez. Still held up by an incredible rhythm section, the song glides gently through it's rather short length, and I enjoy it even if Geoff Tate Jr. isn't singing. The best track on the album, and the reason I rate Eyes Of The Oracle so high, is "Test Of Wills." At just four seconds short of twenty minutes, it's the longest song on the album, and a true progressive epic, equal to nearly any other epic released by any other prog band, old or new. Everything that's shown on the album, the bands unique style, Alex's work on the cymbals and hi-hats, the flamenco guitar work, the Geoff Tate vocals, is shown here perfectly, and it all comes together to form an incredibly intense and powerful song, one that makes it worth the trouble to hunt down and for over $18 (I haven't seen it for anything less) online for this masterpiece.
Oh by the way drummer Alex Arellano kicks ass. Perhaps not the single greatest drummer of all time (as he has been called before), but he has an incredible style, playing incredibly complex beats and delivering possibly the best cymbal/high-hat work ever. This is an incredible CD, and it's unfortunately hard to find, but please go look for it, you shouldn't be disappointed. Unless, of course, your one of those prog haters in the world today, in which case I ask you to pretend I rated the album eight points lower.
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