Review: Turbulence – Binary Dream

Genres: progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Haken
Country: Lebanon
Release date: 8 March 2024

I recall being vaguely aware of Turbulence’s prior album Frontal at the time it came out, but it didn’t enter regular listening rotation for me until I picked it up essentially as research for this review. After all, where’s the fun if I don’t get to compare old to new? The thing is, Frontal is really good! So as we judge another up-and-coming traditional progressive metal artist to see how they mature over time, all the typical questions rise to the surface: Have they improved? Gotten worse? Totally and inexplicably changed their style? Read on to find out!

Traditional progressive metal bands rarely act shy about being influenced by Dream Theater, but Turbulence seem especially open about it. Binary Dream features three whole instrumental tracks to make sure we all know just how great they are at playing their instruments, and all of those tracks—as well as to a lesser extent the smaller instrumental breaks from the songs featuring vocals—feel like they were written to the template of Dream Theater’s infamous instrumental masterpiece “The Dance of Eternity,” a legacy to which every composer in the scene still aspires. The main instrumental outing “Manifestations” especially calls its illustrious predecessor to mind with constant shifts between different keys, moods, and time signatures. Fortunately, whether or not it quite meets the standards of its ancestors, Binary Dream stands perfectly well on its own merits. It’s dynamic, it’s complex, and most importantly, it doesn’t get mired in chasing those elements solely out of a belief that they should be there. Every moment has a purpose and a place, allowing the peaks of complexity to get in, do their thing, and get out of the way.

Indeed, I would say Turbulence’s greatest strength is songwriting, which feels like a rare strength here in the underground, and as such, it seems more and more like that quality is the number one thing that draws me to some artists over others. Turbulence’s layering of instruments and their juxtaposition of complex rhythms leads to some really exquisite musical moments. Although “Manifestations” and the lengthy title track stand out most as examples of such strenuous structuring, it’s the next song “Hybrid” which really shows how their chops are best applied to a single song. Despite being shorter, “Hybrid” most successfully showcases the band’s capabilities, with nimble transitions and compact sections which make their impact up front without needing to bash the listener over head with mind-bending complexity. It’s also nice to see some overarching compositional consideration throughout Binary Dream, with periodic callbacks to the intro track’s pulsing, sci-fi keyboard opening keeping a thread of cohesion to tie it all together.

The prominence of keyboard from Turbulence reminds me a lot of Ions, with both bands using that extra instrumental layer to stand out a little more from their closest competitors, and as a bridge to allow other musical influences like pop and electronica to work their way into the instrumental foundation without feeling out of place. Although it may begin to feel rote after not just Ions but also TEMIC put out strong albums in a similar style last year, I still find it miles more refreshing than the “pure djent” instrumental albums that drop into the underground space week after week, or even other traditional prog artists, which frequently feel just as uninspired even if slightly less sonically uniform. Between the talents of keyboardist Mood Yassin and guitarist Alain Ibrahim (who also played on Ostura’s opus The Room, which, no, I will never shut up about), it would be hard to find a generic performance within Binary Dream; it’s all uniquely memorable.

For a concept album, I’m not especially impressed with the lyrics. Although it’s fine, even expected, for such an album to not always make literal sense in its expressions, Binary Dream feels particularly caught in the pitfall of collecting quasi-profound lyrics which aspire to some deep meaning, but fail both to evoke any specific emotion from the audience and to tell any clear story that can be followed as a unified narrative. Luckily, the vocal part can still be saved by performance. Omar El Hage’s voice, extremely reminiscent of Fredrik Klemp from Maraton and TEMIC or Christian Ayala from Avandra as it stretches into the upper registers, doesn’t always carry the heftiest substance, but does offer a unique instrumental element to add to the mix. And like those other bands, the careful incorporation of his vocal tone into their palette gives Turbulence’s music a unique character which even better suits their more developed production than it did previously.

Turbulence have matured and improved their presentation and polish considerably since 2021’s Frontal. Where their prior effort at times felt busy and overcrowded with too many minor, inconsequential parts laid on top of one another and distracting from the overall presentation, Binary Dream more often than not finds the perfect middle ground where such layering can create a feeling of depth without becoming muddled or overwhelming. I think what’s missing is just some kind of secret spice, that ineffable element which hooks right into the audience’s emotional responses to elevate a technically excellent recording like this to the level of a uniquely compelling experience or even a masterpiece. At least, even without it, we still get an engaging, high quality album, whose complex instrumental noodlings should soothe anyone else feeling angsty about how long ago Metropolis Pt. 2 came out.

Recommended tracks: Theta, Manifestations, Binary Dream, Hybrid
You may also like: TEMIC, Ions, Avandra, Maraton, Ostura
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Frontiers Music – Website | Facebook | YouTube

Turbulence is:
– Omar El Hage (vocals)
– Alain Ibrahim (guitars)
– Mood Yassin (keyboards)
– Morgan Berthet (drums)
– Anthony Atwe (bass)