Style: Traditional progressive metal, djent (power metal vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Haken, Mandroid Echostar
Review by: Tyler
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 26 June 2020
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the June 2020 (Part Two) issue of The Progressive Subway.]
It seems that no matter where you turn in the progressive music ecosystem, there is always a band that falls victim to the genre’s biggest cliche; a disconnect between vocals and instrumentals. It really is a tale as old as time (or like, the 1970’s): There’s a band of incredibly talented folks that do everything right, but the most divisive part of the experience is the vocals. And while Tiberius isn’t the biggest offender of this (nowhere near a LaBrie situation), it is, I feel, where the pitfalls of A Peaceful Annihilation originate.
What Tiberius does isn’t anything new. You know Haken and Dream Theater? You know Tiberius. The influences aren’t just on their sleeves, but they went to a tailor to make custom suits out of them. And all of that’s fine! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The songs themselves are written really well. Lots of technical and complex things are happening, especially in the guitars. I can’t fault anything in the songwriting itself really, it’s sublime and legitimately forward thinking. The issues begin when the vocals really take over the entire record, as the two aforementioned bands have found themselves in the past.
Whenever the vocals are on full display, it almost seems that the rest of the band melts away into being background noise, and frankly, hard to hear at times. And, of course. The vocal line of any song is, arguably, the most important part, no one would disagree. It just seems like in the mixing stage that there was a power struggle and someone had to win. And it wouldn’t be so much of an issue if they weren’t so schmaltzy. They are the quintessential power prog metal vocals, swimming in music that is really far more interesting than most of what the vocals bring to the table. And (this may as well be my catch phrase at this point.) that’s not saying the vocals are performed badly, or out of tune, or anything like that. They aren’t by any sense. But the mix of the timbre itself, very theatrical and vibratious, just doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the band.
Despite the gaping new one I’ve ripped into the vocals so far, it’s not like they never ever worked. The entirety of “Leviathan” is absolutely killer and a real moment where the band was on the same page sonically and they made everything work. The end of “Mechanical Messiah” with the soaring harmonies made me feel something that was missing from the rest of the tracks. And as absolutely stuffed with cheese as it is, something about the way that the vocal line at the end of “Fidelity Lost” just commands the spotlight actually works really well. The text painting just sets a perfect scene of the story they are telling in that song specifically.
It may seem that I hated singing on this thing since I wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it for four paragraphs. But believe me when I say, if it sounded the way I would have preferred, the album would be at least a 9.5, the rest is that good. So it made sense to me to focus on where that hole is, because it certainly wasn’t in the instrumentals. This is absolutely worth at least one listen for folks who are looking for a younger, more talented Dream Theater or maybe just something to take your brain away from the new Haken or whatever. Giver a go.
Recommended tracks: Mechanical Messiah, Fidelity Lost, Leviathan
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Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Tiberius is:
– Grant Barclay (vocals)
– Chris Foster (guitars)
– Jahan Tabrizi (guitars)
– Ryan Anderson (bass)
– Nick Kelly (drums)
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