Published on Mar 4, 1999
When I was in high school, one of the things I learned about in
my literature classes was something called “hubris,” which was a
tragic flaw that a hero had in a story or play. The hero of the
story was a good person on all other accounts, but this one
weakness led to his or her downfall.
The concept of “hubris” kept coming to mind as I listened to the
debut effort from New Eden,
Obscure Master Plan. On the surface, it’s an interesting
mixture of heavy metal and progressive music, the brainchild of
guitarist Horacio Colmenares (who cut his teeth with Steel
Prophet). It’s a great idea, the music is sound, but something
struck me on the first listen.
I thought it couldn’t be true, but subsequent listens confirmed
the “hubris” for me: vocalist Tony Devita is often singing off-key.
Not all the time, mind you, but enough to let you know that
something is wrong. (Listen to the choruses of “Evil Logic” as
proof; the band is playing in the key of “E”, while Devita is a
little sharp.)
This tends to distract from the rest of the album, which is a
strong effort otherwise. The band – guitarist/bassist Colmenares (I
would have liked to have heard the bass brought up in the mix),
guitarist Oscar Gomez, vocalist Devita and drummer Michael
Echeveria – offer a new ray of hope to the heavy metal genre, and
dare to challenge the listener by throwing in tastes of progressive
music.
Of course, you’re going to have the zealots who claim that heavy
metal is the work of the devil, and lyrics like “Heed these words
of satan’s breed / They walk the earth; humanity’s evil seed” (from
“Demons Of Earth”) is proof of this. Unfortunately, these same
self-righteous cretins don’t bother to read the whole lyric sheet;
this song is a commentary on mass murderers, and is hardly an
endorsement for Satanism (or, for that matter, mass murder).
In fact, I’d love to see Jerry “Tinky Winky” Falwell find
something evil in the lyrics of “Flicker Of Faith”: “Live life,
never ending journey / Now take one day at a time / Your faith
should be forever burning / When your soul is on the line”. Then
again, Falwell could find something Satanic in a dial tone, so I
guess I should realize what we’re dealing with here. Lyrically,
Obscure Master Plan is not the brightest picture ever
painted, but it’s one that should give the listener reason to
ponder if they take the time.
The unfortunate thing is that Devita’s vocals go south (or, in
this case, north) too many times, and I found myself distracted by
this. Had just a little more attention been spent on the vocals to
keep them on-key, this album would have been excellent. Instead,
Obscure Master Plan shows a band that is a work in progress
– albeit one whose progress I’m interested in following.