WiszdomStone (EP)

After reading the promo bio on WiszdomStone and after listening to their four song demo EP, I came to the following conclusion; the creators of WiszdomStone, (Ray and Brian), have a shared vision with a burning desire to get their music heard anyway they can, at any cost. WiszdomStone's music can best be described as heavy yet melodic, mid paced progressive metal in the vein of bands like Circle II Circle, Queensryche and Iron Maiden. They incorporate keyboards to help highlight the music in some areas. At times, the music is powerfully uplifting while at others it's dark and moody. The quality and production on the EP varies from track to track. On songs like "Eyes Open" and "Without Faith", the rhythm guitars are a bit compressed for my tastes, sounding a little muddy at times. Mike Stone (guitarist for Queensryche) actually provides vocals on these songs. His voice is very similar to those of Zak Stevens (Circle II Circle) and Mike Dimeo (ex Riot). He does a pretty good job too! The recording and mix on the next two tracks, "Unforgiven" and "The Blade", are a little more desirable, much clearer and punchy. Andre (The Raid) sings vocals on "Unforgiven" while Jim Maher takes over the vocal duties on "The Blade"; probably the best track on the EP both from a musical and vocal standpoint. I like the CD booklet to an extent. Each of the song lyrics are printed over a picture of what is supposed to represent the song titles. Examples would be "Eyes Open" (with the picture of one eye wide open) and "Without Faith" (with the picture of praying hands holding a chain of the crucifix between them). There is no other information provided in the booklet other than vocal credits, a guitar solo credit and e-mail and webpage addresses. Maybe it's the bands way of trying to market more people to visit their site. I also like the band's insignia; a stone W intertwined with a stone S. I'm still trying to understand exactly what WiszdomStone's vision is. There is some great potential to take things to the next level. I'm still unclear as to who plays what as far as bass, drums and guitars. Also, I wonder which vocalists, if any, will play with the band live. As I said earlier, WiszdomStone seem to have a burning desire to get their music heard. It seems Ray and Brian had ideas that they were anxious to record, so they acquired various vocalists and musicians to help get the demo complete. Now that has been accomplished, it should be interesting to see how much different the music will sound if these vocalists do not come along for the ride. Three vocalists? Even though it expands the musical boundaries in a studio, I just wonder how limited it might be in a live setting if there is only one person handling all the vocals. Plus, the use of too many different musicians might not give WiszdomStone the identity they need to stand out from the rest of the pack. A full length CD will be released later this spring/summer.