Album Review: Michael Romeo - War Of The Worlds Pt II

This is another one of those cases where things don't seem to add up in any way that makes sense to me. First is the fact that Michael Romeo is releasing this as a solo album, and not as a Symphony X record, since much of it could serve either purpose, and we all know which one would have the most attention and success. Second is the fact that this is the sequel to his previous solo album, but this one features a different singer than the last time out. It didn't make any sense when Iced Earth switched singers between chapters of a larger concept, and it doesn't make much sense here either. But I digress.

This time, Romeo is joined by singer Dino Jelusick, who has made a name for himself as one of the best Ronnie James Dio/Russell Allen style singers of the younger generation. That's another layer of confusion, but it's nice to see Dino getting a bigger platform after his issues with the label that was putting him in his various projects. Dino is great, so there's no worry about a guitarist's solo album slacking on anything but the guitars. Romeo throws out flashy runs of notes, for sure, but Dino can stand toe-to-toe with him.

All you have to do is listen to "Divide & Conquer" to know this. The song speeds along, and Romeo throws in a solo full of sweep picking and other technical tricks, but then Dino bellows a huge chorus that serves as the anchor around which everything else can turn. Whether you want to call it power or progressive metal, it doesn't get done much better than that song.

That holds true as the next couple of songs, "Destroyer" and "Metamorphosis" both tone down the hooks as the heaviness gets upped slightly. The same thing happened on Symphony X's "Iconoclast" album, where the songs relied more on power and less on melody, which doesn't need to happen. The two can coexist, and things would be all the better if they did. These songs are still good, don't get me wrong, but if the hooks were even stronger, we would have something special on our hands.

That said, I do have some confusion that comes in regarding the sequencing of the album. It starts with an instrumental intro, we get those three songs, and then it's back to an intermission instrumental piece. I don't hear what reason there is for throwing a semi-orchestral two minutes in the middle of the track listing. I guess it's supposed to set something up, but what it does for me is disrupt the flow and momentum the proper songs establish. Those first three are a great start, and "Just Before The Dawn" coming out of that is a fantastic ballad, so I'm not sure what breaking them up accomplishes.

We also get "Hunted" as a full-throated instrumental, which means of the eleven tracks on the record, four of them are sans vocals. For someone like me, who is all about 'the song', that decision makes the album much harder to enjoy. The record is at its best when Romeo's riffs are paired with Dino's huge voice. Every time the album pulls back from the winning formula, I'm left wanting. Anticipation makes the heart grow fonder, but there are limits to that.

The tracks with Dino, if we take just those, are a pretty darn good album. In the progressive metal world, it's been a while since I've heard anything definitively better than those songs. This is an easy recommendation on that basis. The thing is, we still have those instrumentals to consider, and I can't say 'just skip them' as if they don't exist. They are there, and every second of their running time is a second that could have been used on another top-notch song. So there is a lot of good on this record, but also decisions that pull the album away from my taste. That won't be true for everyone, so you can make your own decision.

For me, Michael Romeo has delivered some great music I probably will only absorb in small chunks, and not as an album. That's a shame.