Review Summary: Sci-fi metal. As cheesy as it is heavy. It may not be for everyone, but it’s a heap of fun.
Progressive power metal has potential to include a roster of bizarre, untamed bands, and the reasons are obvious. By combining the two genres, you’ll get the ridiculous wankery of progressive metal, and also the excessive cheese found in power metal. It is a match made in heaven, or hell, depending on your musical preference. How does this relate to Pagan’s Mind? Well, Pagan’s Mind always had the potential to go bonkers, and in
God’s Equation they did just that. Being about as proggy and power metal as the human mind can handle, this is easily their most bizarre album. The band was always a bit out there with their nerdy lyrics and alien soundscapes, so why not go all out? It turns out that going a bit crazy was just the thing the band needed.
God’s Equation could be described as a metal freak-out. Every song is flooded with insane guitar riffs, riffs so outstandingly technical it’s amazing that their guitarist can play the songs live. The band also amped up distortion to bone-shaking levels, the ploy works well in their favor. However, some things do not work as well, such as the lead singer’s attempts at growls, or the gang vocals tossed in songs – it is thankful that they are only occasional nuisances. Generally, Pagan’s Mind’s attempt at being more metal is achieved with flying colors; the album is a head banger. You can expect a lot more metal like the opening riff in God’s Equation.
With their technical instrument playing as well as the distortion factor being turned up, it follows that their sci-fi sounds are more prevalent than ever. The keyboardist is at his best, belting out alien synth lines and spacey atmospherics in the most obvious geek attack yet. He’s also playing to a higher level with the synths used just as often as the guitar work, it’s even difficult to tell the two instruments apart when one after the other burst out with solos. So what happens when the band’s technical metal and alien soundscapes collide? Absolute chaos happens. The album has a bad case of ADHD and the amount of ridiculous riffs is almost humorous. For now, this is Pagan’s Mind’s greatest album, and it’s quite hard to beat in the progressive metal scene, but will the band ever surpass
God’s Equation? Only time can tell.
