Catchy progressive metal with soaring vocals and top-notch musicianship? Yes please!
My latest music obsession for the past two months has been Swedish progressive metallers, Seventh Wonder, and more specifically their 2008 masterpiece entitled Mercy Falls. The band doesn't break new ground in the genre but they have rock solid musicians (the bass player in particular is an absolute beast) as well as one of the best singers currently in metal, Tommy Karevik.
It all started for me when I went to see the prog/power metal band, Kamelot, perform last year. Not being too familiar with the band, I wasn't aware they made a personnel change in the vocalist department on their latest album. Needless to say, they blew me away live and the highlight was their new singer, Tommy Karevik. I got heavily into their latest album, Silverthorn, and was delighted to see that Tommy would be a guest vocalist on the new Ayreon album, The Theory of Everything. Well, that album turned out to be one of my favorite albums of 2013 and Tommy was one of the main reasons why. It didn't take me long after to become a Tommy fanboy and seek out everything else he has done. That's when I discovered Seventh Wonder. And that's when I fell in love with Mercy Falls.
"A Day Away" is a gem of a song from that album. An infectious keyboard line immediately gets things going, leading way to Tommy's perfect vocals. The chorus is like crack - it's so addictive and catchy and it always seems to find it's way into my head. The guitar riff that follows the chorus is pure prog-metal, reminiscent of John Petrucci's guitar work with prog-metal giants, Dream Theater. Nice keyboard and guitar solos pave the way for a melodic little bridge before finishing things off with a 3rd helping of that magical chorus. There are better songs on this album, but I'm not sure any other track is as catchy as this one. Hell, I can't remember the last metal song I've heard by any band that's as catchy as this one.
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