An Absence of Empathy
Henning's musicianship and writing style in this album have clearly set a precedent for all 21st century prog-metal! --Joel Glanfield, HP Forum, April 2005Unweaving the Rainbow brought you evolution. An Absence of Empathy will bring you fear. --Oscar Quintero, HP Forum, April 2005In 2003 the German musician Henning Pauly made his debut with Frameshift through the delicious progalbum Unweaving The Rainbow , although Henning was already known through his other band called Chain. And now there s the second Frameshift-album, again prog but with more hardrock and metal in it. First of all because of Henning himself, who wanted to make a more heavier, but still prog-record and secondly through the vocals from nobody else then ex-Skid Row vocalist Sebastain Bach. When I heard the first two songs. I had a bad feeling that this album would not be what I had expected, just because with a prog-album you don t expect a hardrock-vocalist to sing on it, although the musical-arrangements are delicious prog. But then came the song "Miseducation", which is a real heavy prog-song on which Sebastian rough vocals totally come to their right and on which he proves that Hennings choice to ask him for the vocal duties on this new album where not so strange after all (imagine, his first choice was Devin Townsend, but he was too busy at that particular moment). On this song you can hear a lot of strange electric effects which you ll hear on other songs as well, it just makes it all more exciting, together with the terrific guitarsound and the great synth solos. Sometimes the harmonies are a bit complex, but nowhere it goes over the top, just because it has the right dose of melody and on the right moment the exact tempo-changes. Lyrically this is sort of conceptalbum again, but now build around the nature of violence in humans. Folks that only like progmetal with clean vocals will be a bit disappointed I guess, but I can t say anything else then that this is a decent album, suitable for every progfan, just try it out, give it a chance! --Musketeer of Death