Reviewed by Seth Metoyer,
Perpetual Paranoia just dropped a juggernaut of an album, titled 'The Wave', clocking in at a little over an hour long with 13 songs. This album goes hard, and I'm on board with that.
'The Wave', with its Sci-Fi, sort of The Terminator-looking cover art, is a mixture of several heavy genres sprinkled throughout the album. There's classic metal, nu-metal, grunge, post-grunge hard rock, and some definite Pantera influences, along with technical metal riffs just for good measure.
Fans of older Bride should really dig this one. They might also get a kick out of the little throwback to some older Bride lyrics in the song "Travail", where vocalist Dale Thompson wails "We won't go, to hell no, we won't go." The song jams, too. Check it out in the video below.
Some familiar guest guitarists also appear on this album. Troy Thompson of Bride bends strings on the song "Unjust and the Just", while Stryper guitarist Oz Fox throws down in "About to Crack The Sky".
Dale Thompsoin's vocals are monstrous here, and we've come to expect that type of vocal mastery from him. On "The Wave", Thompson also showcases some of his additional vocal abilities within the technical musical changes, as I really enjoyed the mellow harmonizing along with the heavier vocal approach we find on the album. You'll have to check it out for yourself. It's a masterclass in metal vocals.
One thing I didn't quite understand with this release was the industrial/techno/synth tracks spread out on the album. The music is interesting, and I actually like the songs, but I'm just not sure they belong within the other songs on this album. I think they would have worked better as a completely different project than this particular Perpetual Paranoia release. One that would showcase this other style of music in its proper surroundings. The inclusion of these four songs kind of breaks the flow of the already long album for me. I think it would have been a stronger release with just the 9 other songs, as people already have a short attention span (so much music vying for our time) and are used to most albums running about 35-40 minutes these days.
Overall, I enjoyed "The Wave" quite a bit. I like that it doesn't sound like everything you hear out there today. It's heavy, melodic, catchy and full of unique time signatures and beats. Very creative and it doesn't fit into a box. That's refreshing to me.
Stand out songs on this album are:
Cornerstone
Travail
Unjust and the Just
God Hates a Coward
Check this one out, and be sure to crank it up on some good headphones or stereo speakers. My Beats Studio Headphones got a good workout while listening to it.
Find "The Wave" by Perpetual Paranoia on Spotify here. The album can be found on other streaming sites as well, just search for them and you should find the album "The Wave".
Follow Perpetual Paranoia on Instagram here.
Photo of the guys from Perpetual Paranoia in the studio shared by Producer Tiago James de Souza on Facebook.
Perpetual Paranoia "Travail" from the album "The Wave":