Year: 2020
Total Time: 44:24
Label: ROAR! Rock of Angels Records
After reviewing the two totems of Progressive Power Metal, QUEENSRYCHE and DREAM THEATER, it’s time to write about the Norwegians COURSE OF FATE, a band that combines the two aforementioned bands. With their debut album released under the roof of our Greek ROAR! Rock of Angels Records, this 6-membered band succeeds and enters the field of Progressive Metal/Rock dynamically and with the best potential. Here the newly formed Norwegian band manages to perfectly combine its influences, an alloy from QUEENSRYCHE’s “Operation Mindcrime” and “Promised Land” era along with “Images And Words” and “Awake”‘ respectively of’ THEATER and all this crafted with a nice touch of classic FLOYD, with such a forwardthinking design that it isn’t at all annoying to the listener but on the contrary it successfully wins him over slowly …
The eight compositions of “Mindweaver” are decent and the cover is also enigmatic, mysterious and cerebral, a must for a serious prog release. The exceptions confirming the rule that the student can become slighter better than the teacher, are the songs ” Endgame “and the ethereal Opeth-ic / Floyd-ish ” Drifting Away “, which provide glimpses of their compositional talent and reaffrms my belief that they can do bigger things at the future and are more than capable of escaping from the shadow of their artistic “mentors”.
In short, to my ears COURSE OF FATE sound like you have put Zacharias and SAVATAGE to play the QUEENSRYCHE pieces in the elaborate style of DREAM THEATER and PINK FLOYD. So surely we are talking about something good…
One of the most negative aspects of this album is that in the mastering and mixing process (that took place at Nobelstreet Studios in Gothenburg-Sweden), the production should probably be a little more polished and the instruments should sound more “lively”. Anyway, “Mindweaver” is definitely an album that deserves the opportunity to be heard by the friends of the aforementioned influences of this underground band.
Rating: 6,5/10
Editor: Nikos Mathiopoulos
Related Link: COURSE OF FATE – Facebook Page
