Review by Rexorcist for Ark - Ark (1999)

I never really hear anyone talk about Ark, probably because the band broke up too quickly to get noticed.  However, both of their albums are considered quite good, so as a prog fan I was looking forward to this for a while.  I finally have some time for metal among all my EDM studies, so why not tackle one of the Metal Academy list challenges?  This time, it's 2nd wave of prog metal.  Unfortunately, when I check out a band, I don't like to look up only one album.  So this list challenge is going to take some extra effort on my part.  Thankfully, the next album on this prog challenge belongs to a band with only two albums, so it's onto this one and off to Burn the Sun.

I noticed that Jorn Lande, also known simply as Jorn, has a similar growl in his vocals to one of my favorite metal vocalists: Russell Allen of Symphony X, who recorded a few albums with him.  Jorn, however, has a bit of traditional hard rock in his voice as well, like just a hint of Robert Plant of another Russell: Jack of Great White.  Along with some traditional vibes, this prog metal album had a nice retro flair to it. The organs in the background are a bit reminiscent of this time as well, recalling moments of Deep Purple and krautrock.  The organ is all-too familiar in prog.  And thankfully, the album mixed it up a little.  pop and prog structures both make their way into this album while we get cute surprises like acoustic Spanish guitar.

Unfortunately, there are two huge problems that got in the way of my enjoyment.  First: the percussion.  The drummer they got was good at what he did, but the distinct sound of the drums was too high and light for a prog metal album.  This hindered the album's ability to maximize the metal energy and constantly got in the way of me fully enjoying any of the songs.  Second: the progressive layouts.  They're are standard as a poppier Rush album.  It's like these prog elements are just prog enough to get the tag.  Eventually, all of its tricks start to feel standard.  On top of that, lyrics like "Roll the dice, pay the price" can be written by Crush 40.

OK, so this debut had some ups that lasted a little while before the downs made it feel less original.  it's a decently cool prog debut, but a standard one with both strong highs and a couple effective lows.  They say the second one is much better, so here's hoping it lives up to the legend when I get to it.  I feel no reason to return to this one, though.