Wolverine — The Window Purpose

Wolverine plays a brand of Prog-Metal that should feel like home to fans of Pain of Salvation, Fates Warning and Evergrey (maybe even Dream Theater). This is their first full length album after 1999’s Fervent Dream mini-CD and this time the band sees big: The Window Purpose is a concept album about a dead man who gives us a private tour of his past life. The first song starts with a burial that superficially reminds me of King Diamond’s Abigail, but the comparison stops there; no haunted houses or demons, what we get here are similar subjects to what Pain of Salvation explored (abused children, relationships, etc).

Aside from the more typical Prog-Metal songs about which I don’t have much to say without repeating what most reviews of modern Prog-Metal say (yes they have good melodies, yes they have some heavier parts with staccato riffing, yes they have solos, yes there’s some fancy drumwork, yes there are synthesizers, yes sometimes it’s emotional, yes sometimes it’s angry), the band also writes ballads (there is one male/female duet in particular that reminds me of a song in Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, but it’s probably just because I don’t remember it very well…) that walk the fine line between sappy melodramatic crap and heart wrenching emotional music. Fortunately for me, the band usually stays on the right side of the line but depending on your tastes, you could find some songs a little too much to handle... Let me put it this way: if all you want is a big bowl of shred, weird time signatures and lots of complex riffs stringed one after the other (some people call that a “song”, go figure), then this might not be the band for you even if they are excellent musicians and show it, tastefully, at times. Also worth noting is that, on three songs, the drummer does backing vocals in a growled style. Overall they are a little weak but they don’t detract from the enjoyment of the music, on the contrary, they add to it… It’s just that they could add lots more if the performance was stronger. Maybe on the next album? In any case, it shows that Wolverine are not afraid to ruffle a few feathers as I’m sure the old Prog-Metal guard will think it’s a sacrilege to use anything but technically perfect melodic vocals on purpose.

The Window Purpose is well produced, well written and well played. A very solid debut albums that only indicates good things for the future of the band. I’ll keep an eye on them…