Seeds of Rage is the debut album from Eldritch, a long running Italian progressive metal band that is active until this day. Though their name was taken from a Watchtower song, Eldritch are clearly more entrenched in the Dream Theater school, rather than the ultra technical namesake band.
I first purchased this album enthusiastically not long after its release. A few years later, when purging some progressive metal titles - a style I was tiring of at the time - the album found its way on a bus out of here. Fast forward about 20 years, and I decided to pick up the album one more time, to much better success. And six years later, we're checking it out again.
In retrospect, Eldritch's debut is a fine progressive metal album, that does just enough to separate from the pack. No doubt influenced by the technical, and somewhat speedy variation, of Dream Theater's early 90s output. The music is straight out of the 90s metal handbook, with high pitched vocals, thrashy riffs, complicated rhythms, digital synthesizers, and a rather slick production. There's not a lot of variation in their tones, so it can get a bit monotonous after awhile if not paying strict attention. There's no stand out tracks, yet everything is well performed, and the music has enough meter changes and compositional differences to keep it interesting. A solid entry in the large book of prog metal albums. Worth checking out.
1997; 5/1/14; 7/16/20 (review / new entry)
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