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May 2024

• Marty Friedman: Drama
• Demon: Invincible
• The Treatment: Wake Up The Neighbourhood
• The Tangent: To Follow Polaris
• Riot V: Mean Streets
• Anette Olzon: Rapture
• FM: Old Habits Die Hard

April 2024

• War Grave: War Grave EP
• Six By Six: Beyond Shadowland
• Vanden Plas: The Empyrean Equation Of The Long Lost Things
• Praying Mantis: Defiance
• King Zebra: Between The Shadows
• About Us: Take A Piece
• Blue Oyster Cult: Ghost Stories

March 2024

• Cruzh: The Jungle Revolution
• Whom Gods Destroy: Insanium
• The Prog Collective: Dark Encounters
• Lords Of Black: Mechanics Of Predacity
• Lipz: Changing The Melody
• The End Machine: The Quantum Phase
• Stargate: Escaping The Illusion
• Turbulence: Binary Dream
• Sonata Arctica: Clear Cold Beyond
• D'Luna: Monster
• Big Big Train: The Likes Of Us
• Benjamin Croft: We Are Here To Help

February 2024

• Traveler: Prequel To Madness
• Lionheart: The Grace Of A Dragonfly
• Honeymoon Suite: Alive
• Durbin: Screaming Steel
• Smoking Snakes: Danger Zone
• Revolution Saints: Against The Winds
• Striker: Ultrapower
• Show N Tell: The Ritual Has Begun
• Robert Hart: Circus Life

[ More Music Reviews ]

Turbulence: Binary Dream

Progressive Metal

4.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 06.03.2024 | Released: 08.03.2024

Formed over ten years ago, I was first introduced to Lebanon's Turbulence with their second long-player, Frontal, in 2021. You can read more about their history in my review of the album. But now we turn to their third studio album, Binary Dream. It's a concept album about "the journey of 8b+1, a robot at the center of an experiment called Binary Dreaming," wherein the automaton "achieves a consciousness awakening."

Turbulence

The story is told in Turbulence's inventive and technical, but highly accessible and listeneable, progressive metal. It's prog that finds roots in traditional heavy metal, then adds djent riffs, rhythm, and groove, some spry, often subtle, jazz fusion nuances, and even some ambient music sounds. Perhaps most subtle and sublime is Omar El Hajj voice and vocal arrangements.

Digging deep into the album, you'll find six vocal songs and three instrumentals. The heavy poly-rhythmic djent riffs and groove catapult the album at the beginning with Static Mind and Theta, the latter invested with a strong guitar solos. The first, short, instrumental comes with Time Bridge, generally, again simply riffs, rhythm, and groove. Yet, the song blends seamlessly into the second instrumental, Manifestations which continues the same musical pattern. That's until just before four minutes wherein Turbulence offers some of that aforementioned jazz-like fusion. It was easily my most favorite song.

Then, comes Ternary wherein Hajj is both subtle and emotional, the music soft, ambient, atmospheric. The title track, Binary Dream, arrives with another mostly impactful excursion into more djent groove. There is a subtle breakdown in the middle, but the song seems to suggest an apex in the story has been reached as both Hybrid and Corrosion contain a juxtaposition of emotions, sublime versus heaviness. At the end is the instrumental Deerosion which seems to eschew the earlier musical elements for some basic and climactic melodic metal and a terrific guitar solo in crescendo. My second favorite song on the album.

All said, with Binary Dreams, Lebanon's Turbulence has both established and advanced their progressive metal style in technical achievement, yet remaining approachable, accessible, and entertaining for the most ardent and discerning prog listener. Definitely recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With Binary Dreams, Lebanon's Turbulence has both established and advanced their progressive metal style in technical achievement, yet remaining approachable, accessible, and entertaining for the most ardent and discerning prog listener.

Support the artist, click the link below to buy the album in your favorite format.

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Next year, American metal band Riot V, founded by the late guitarist Mark Reale (d. 2012), will celebrate their 50th anniversary in the metal business. Though we haven't had a new studio album from the band ... [ Read More ]

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