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Imagery: The Inner Journey

Here's one from 2012 that's just now getting sent our way, the debut from Brazilian progressive metal act Imagery. The band, comprised of Joceir Bertoni (vocal/guitar), Ricardo Fanucchi (bass), Henrique Loureiro (keyboards), and Bruno Pamplona (vocal/drums) formed back in 2008 initially as a trio, with Loureiro adding keyboards to The Inner Journey as a guest musician before joining the band full time recently. Musically, The Inner Journey is a mix of progressive rock, metal, and jazz-fusion styles, with the band listing their influences as Dream Theater, Jethro Tull, Yes, Passport, Gentle Giant, Pantera, Megadeth, Deep Purple, Chick Corea, and Iron Maiden, among others, so you can just tell that the songs here are probably going to be pretty diverse. That is indeed the case, as the opening instrumental "Fourth Secret" busts out of the gate in crunchy, complex progressive metal fashion. "Imagery" mixes clean & gruff vocals over intricate guitar and keyboard passages, while the exciting "Perception" sees plenty of vintage prog & fusion styled keyboards from Loureiro over heavy riffs from Bertoni. The band produces some inspired Dream Theater styled prog-metal on "Start the War", and deliver crushing metal on the dark "Stranger". My favorite track though might be the 8-minute "Last", a raging hard rock number with plenty of Deep Purple inspired Hammond organ & guitar work, plus some intricate arrangements that recall vintage '70s prog.

The Inner Journey is a pretty solid initial outing for Imagery. My one gripe are the vocals, which truth be told aren't very strong and rather one dimensional. I'd love to see these guys hire a lead vocalist with a powerful voice so they can concentrate on their instrumental parts. Either way there is plenty of talent here and it will be fun to watch this band develop from here.


Track Listing
1. Fourth Secret (4:50)
2. Imagery (5:57)
3. Perception (6:13)
4. Start The War (4:01)
5. The Rain (5:46)
6. Show Me (3:37)
7. Stranger (4:43)
8. Last (8:12)

Added: March 29th 2014
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2253
Language: english

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Imagery: The Inner Journey
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2014-03-29 15:35:48
My Score:

The debut album, The Inner Journey, from Brazilian Heavy Progressives, Imagery, arrives amidst frantic guitar, pulsating percussion and the odd splash of vocals, via guest keyboards and piano. This trio come quartet have already been making waves, opening for Focus to launch this album and picking up many admirers as they've done so. It's easy to hear why. Jazzy interludes, riffage that verges into Metal and bright breezy showers of melody ensure that "Imagery", "Start The War" or "Stranger" are heavy, yet intricate, engaging, yet challenging and technically impressive, yet still song based.

Sometimes the feeling does arise that the vocals across this album are an afterthought, short bursts of voice a chance to rest in between the overtly full-on musical challenge and certainly seldom the focus of what's really going on. If you're looking for a chance to sing out loud and clap to the beat, move along, there's nothing here for you. However if cascading fret runs, thunderbolts of tom work and frantically precise keyboard punches make the smile on your face reach from one ear-hole to the other, then prepare for a bit of face ache.

Jocier Bertoni is the under used, although not always completely convincing shouter, snarler, angry spitting singer, so it's only fitting he fills the gaps with scything guitar swipes, Ricardo Fanucchi gallops alongside, his bass thrumming, humming, running at full pelt, drummer Luciano Neves provides the percussive punctuation that's far from perfunctory. Yet one of the secret weapons is keybaoarding Hammonder Henrique Louriero, his efforts infusing almost all of the songs here with colour and variation that could have otherwise been left cowering in the corner.

For some these efforts may be a bit full on and serious (there isn't a smile between the three main lads in any of the five pictures of them in the excellent booklet – they mean it maaan!). Others may wrongly call this Prog Metal – it's far too individual for that tag, however in the end what Imagery create is romping Prog Rock with a muscular feel, Jazzy outlook, Poppy hooks (well, one or two) and classy musicianship. A little honing and fine tuning here and there wouldn't go amiss, but for a debut this is impressive stuff.



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