Moments Gate - The Art Of Being Pointless
After a brief hiatus and then reconciliation, Moments Gate have unleashed a new demo for fans to hear (with an old friend included as well). With a new take on Progressive Metal for the group, 'The Art Of Being Pointless' is an ironic listen with its message embedded in the music. At first it sounds like a typical Power Metal/ Progressive Metal hybrid with semi-boring vocals and all energy being put into the guitars, but the albums builds as it goes by. "Johnny" takes a completely different direction that really sets the progressive path with more of a spoken word approach through the entire track with a Hard Rock background and sprinkles of electronic elements, either in the form of blips and beeps from keyboards and samples of vocals taken from recordings or movies. This gives the music more of a psy orient but certainly ups the intrigue factor for the group being more than just sounding generic. The album tends to switch back and forth between these two formats though a bit more predictably than expected. "Dirty Mirror" is another heavy track while "Innocence" is another 'Metal opera' piece- a bit more symphonic and cleaner than the previous one- but overall the music structure is the same.
"The Art Of Being Pointless" balls everything together for a great, balanced effort that is electronic, compelling, and heavy- an excellent example of non typical Progressive Metal. Still, the vocals sound a bit dry and tired, but the backing instruments balance that out by putting in the extra effort, and the wild piano is always intriguing. Moments Gate also re-introduce "To All The Idols Carved In Stone," which was featured on their first demo, but with a fresh re-production for sound, it might as well be a new track. Fans who have heard it before won't mind hearing a clearer version and new fans will see how it fits in with the other tracks easily for the rapid spoken word elements. This is a great step for the band that certainly shows off their progressive elements and will surely bloom into something bigger given more time to expand on sound and get a full length album out.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/v/Xzza8-fzM64[/embed]
"The Art Of Being Pointless" balls everything together for a great, balanced effort that is electronic, compelling, and heavy- an excellent example of non typical Progressive Metal. Still, the vocals sound a bit dry and tired, but the backing instruments balance that out by putting in the extra effort, and the wild piano is always intriguing. Moments Gate also re-introduce "To All The Idols Carved In Stone," which was featured on their first demo, but with a fresh re-production for sound, it might as well be a new track. Fans who have heard it before won't mind hearing a clearer version and new fans will see how it fits in with the other tracks easily for the rapid spoken word elements. This is a great step for the band that certainly shows off their progressive elements and will surely bloom into something bigger given more time to expand on sound and get a full length album out.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/v/Xzza8-fzM64[/embed]
- The Conjuring Track
- Johnny
- Dirty MIrror
- Innocence
- The Dissembler
- The Art Of Being Pointless
- To All The Idols Carved In Stone (bonus)
Self released
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Mar 8, 2012
Mar 8, 2012
Next review:
Mare Infinitum - Sea Of Infinity
Share this:
