Search - Ring of Fire :: Lapse of Reality

Not as hot as they could be

George Dionne | Cape Cod, MA | 01/24/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Good

Any metal group that can incorporate a good piano solo into a song is aces in my book. And that's just what Ring of Fire does on the opening track "Lapse of Reality". The guitar riffs are subtle but crunchy, and Boals' vocals push the limits of his range. The hard-charging opening licks of "Change" are just as powerful as the tuneful vocals. "You Were There" is a piano heavy power ballad with a great melodic guitar solo.



It's only fitting that "Machine" starts off with mechanical sound effects. It then breaks into intense chugga-chugga riffing. "One Little Mystery" features a dueling guitar and keyboard breakdown, a technique that is synonymous with prog-metal. There are some great vocal melodies and soothing keyboard tones on "Faithfully". Be sure to check out MacAlpine's neo-classical fretwork. As an added bonus Ring of Fire includes the long version of "Lapse of Reality" to conclude the CD.



The Bad

Mark Boals vocal range seems to be much higher than the key the band is playing in. For such fast playing musicians, the songs tend to not have a lot of energy.



The Verdict

Although Lapse of Reality is a strong prog-metal album, Ring of Fire are not as hot as they could be.



"

Mark Boals, Virgil Donati and Tony Macalpine? I'm in!

Paul Lawrence | Australia | 06/13/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"But what's this? the first track starts well and then the vocals come in. Way too slow for the song! His voice is high pitched and not as powerful as it used to be but seriously, the slow vocals strip all the heft out of the song. This isn't how you start a ripping album!



Things do get better though. With MacAlpine on guitar you know that the riffs will be precisely played and interesting and there are indeed some fine solos on here and they are delivered tastefully and without ego which is a real plus.



Some other highpoints would be:



The care in the arrangements, the packaging and the attempt at making this look like a proper band despite the fact it's probably not. Interesting tracks would include Change and That Kind of Man as they have prog metal style (read weird) time signatures which break things up a bit, Perfect World where Mark Boals really lets fly with his range, Machine which is darn near industrial with machine gun style instrumentation and finally, the track Faithfully which has some really nice understated drum work by Virgil Donati and once again, some weird time signatures and arrangements.



Overall I picked this album up on the strength of the players and was disappointed. It just goes to show that the old saying is true - a champion team will often beat a team of champions. Mark Boals fans will probably enjoy this, as will many fans of Planet X. Fans of the softer end of the hard rock/metal spectrum will perhaps also find something of interest here.



A low three stars for my mind."