Review: Seventh Station – Heal the Unhealed

Style: Progressive Metal, Eclectic Progressive Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Haken
Review by: Christopher
Country: Slovenia
Release date: 7 November, 2022

I’m a sucker for what we’ve come to call “eclectic prog”, prog that’s weird or irreverent without being full-on avant-garde, running the gamut from the outright comical like Devin Townsend or Cheeto’s Magazine, to the merely eccentrically unique like Subterranean Masquerade. And speaking of Subterranean Masquerade, our album for review today features that eccentric Israeli group’s newest singer, Davidavi “Vidi” Dolev on vocals. Seventh Station is Vidi’s first project—formed by Israeli guitarist Dmitri Alperovich and Turkish keyboardist Eren Başbuğ—and Heal the Unhealed is their sophomore release.

An international collective ostensibly based in Slovenia, Seventh Station boast an impressive pedigree. Comparisons to Subterranean Masquerade are inevitable given Vidi’s unique timbre and theatricality, but Seventh Station are more traditionally metal and yet even more outlandish, delivering frenetic progressive metal akin to Others By No One or Devin Townsend. A concept album inspired by World War II and the Soviet Union under Stalin, “Unspoken Thoughts” opens Heal the Unhealed with boundless energy, a rollicking work of bizarro progressive metal that blisters through countless riffs; as openers go, it’s strong.

However, after this, a problem begins to arise: there’s a ton of spoken word on this album. Vidi’s voice has gravitas and the dramatic readings—spanning English, Russian, Hebrew and Italian—are certainly delivered more adeptly than much of the spoken word I’ve heard, and it’s interwoven into the compositions well. Nevertheless, spoken word is a pet peeve of mine in music, and along with samples of speeches it accounts for something like a fifth of Heal the Unhealed’s runtime. That’s not a flaw I can overlook, though for some listeners it may not prove a flaw at all. I appreciate that these recitations add to the grandiose conceptuality but, for me, it starts to interrupt the album’s flow. With repeat listens I found it a less glaring problem, but it does somewhat dampen the record’s many giddy heights.

But with that fairly minor complaint out of the way, we can get into the meat of Seventh Station: they’re fucking mental. These guys can perform. Vidi’s performance on this album is staggeringly unhinged, even better than on Subterranean Masquerade’s Mountain Fever, which was my favourite album of 2021. Honestly, he’d be a fantastic choice for a villain in a Disney musical—”Seven Digits” is a stellar proxy audition for such a role. He croons and growls and wails and simpers throughout the record, putting everything he has into every syllable. 

The rest of the band are unstoppable too, every member gets a moment to shine in a mix which gives them all equal standing. The composition has a semi-symphonic flow to it (and, indeed, some symphonic accompaniment) constantly evolving, opting for motifs over riffs—the instrumental track “The Ruthless Koba” sounds at times like a metal version of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”. Aside from the absolutely jaw-dropping lead guitar and synth work which is unrelenting, there’s a ton of stand-out instrumental moments. “The Heart of a Nation (Nadia)” alone features: an enormous choir and organ section, followed by Haken-esque duelling synth and guitar which is succeeded by an utterly gorgeous classical guitar break. That’s three amazing consecutive moments in one damned song! Heal the Unhealed does give those moments room to breathe, indeed there are many softer moments with a romantic or creepy vibe, but a lot of the time they dial it up to eleven.

I wasn’t familiar with Seventh Station prior to picking them up for this review, but upon listening to Heal the Unhealed I went straight to their debut Between Life and Dreams. Undoubtedly, the band have gone no holds barred for their sophomore, but their debut is more disciplined and has far fewer interspersions of spoken word. Heal the Unhealed hits absolutely unhinged heights, but is held back by the sheer number of speeches. I can wholeheartedly recommend both albums, but what I want Seventh Station to sound like is somewhere between the two. 

Heal the Unhealed is a difficult album to reach a conclusion on. There’s so much here that I adore; these guys are all incredible performers and Vidi especially is at the height of his powers, but the zeniths Seventh Station soar to are tipped into unwieldy territory by the glut of samples and dramatic spoken word readings. Without these the album would be at least ten minutes shorter, flow far better, and be a strong contender for my top ten albums of the year. As it is, it’s still a fantastic sonic accomplishment, but next time, please guys, ease up on the spoken word stuff. 

Recommended tracks: Unspoken Thoughts, The Heart of a Nation (Nadia), Seven Digits
You may also like: Subterranean Masquerade, Others By No One, Soul Enema, Spheres
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Seventh Station is:
– Dmitri Alperovich (guitars)
– Eren Başbuğ (keyboards)
– Davidavi (Vidi) Dolev (vocals)
– Jure Lopatic (bass)
– Grega Plamberger (drums)