Description
Tracks:
Father & Son,
Crossing,
Where The Rain Falls,
Out Of The Rain
+ Father & Son (edit) + Out Of The Rain (edit)
Verdict: A classy mixture of Prog, Metal and AOR
Pedestrians Of Blue consists of Norwegians Johannes Stole (singer/keyboards) and Torfinn Sirnes (guitar). Johannes is a member of Orange Crush. POB is an outlet for Johannes heavier rock side, with the band describing their music as a mixture of Queensryche, Toto & Metallica. Circles Of Butterflies is POBs first demo.
On opener, “Father & Son”, a church style organ beginning gives way to something heavier. At first you think Metallica, then you think Queensryche. Imagine what would happen if Metallica were more keyboard orientated. A classical section highlights the bands progressive aspirations.
Gentle modern synth rhythms introduce “Crossing” before the guitars take over. The closest description is that it is similar to a slow Metallica track. The programmed drums intrude somewhat on the overall sound. The guitar sound is cleaner than Metallica and this is where the Queensryche comparisons come in.
At first it seems the band are in danger of showing their influences a little too much at the start of “Where The Rain Falls” as the sound very Metallica. The processed vocals (which make me think the band have been listening to Chers Believe album) and a good chorus make this more than a mere attempt to recreate the Metallica sound. You know, the more I listened to this track in particular, the more excited I got about POBs music. They even manage to throw in a little bit of Hammond style organ right at the end, which pleases an old Purple fan like me.
The slow basic beginning of “Out Of The Rain”, rather like Orange Crushs sparse arrangements, serves to remind me just how good Johannes is in the vocal department. Johannes vocals lend the whole CD a sense of melody and smoothness that can be missing from progressive rock/metal. I guess this why the band include Toto in their own description of their sound. About halfway through the track, the band move back into a heavier mode and take off in a vaguely Dream Theater direction.
Dream Theater’s Images & Words is one of my favorite albums. It gels together Metallica, progressive rock and AOR perfectly. I have checked out a few similar bands, but it always seems to me like they are simply trying too hard to emulate/be Dream Theater and not coming up with any ideas of their own. POB, on the other hand, have taken roughly the same influences as Dream Theater and created something that runs in parallel with Images & Words era Dream Theater, without crossing over into their path. I’m looking forward to see how they develop their ideas.
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