Like I said earlier in my Evening Star review, I have been burnt out on Power Metal lately so I’ve been listening to a lot of Progressive Metal and Power of Omens was one of those bands. I’ve been meaning to review this for awhile now because I picked it up at Prog Power but it is one of those cds that is dense, it needs you to listen to it a lot before you start to understand and enjoy it. Rooms of Anguish is the band’s second album to date and about four years in the making. This is a very technical and almost experimental disc but since I have been more exposed to Progressive Metal bands in the past year or so I have grown an ear for this kind of music. Granted it still doesn’t move me as the majesty of pure Power Metal does but it is great for a long overdue break from the praising of the lords of steel and might.

Power of Omens’ style (at least on Rooms of Anguish) is a slow, midpaced jaunt that is very guitar and keyboard heavy. Many twists and turns and all this is overlaid with some really high Geoff Tate’ish vocals by Chris Salinas. Think Queensryche’s EP or Warning era but a bit higher to get a good idea of what I’m talking about. The songs run on a long streak as well, other than the obligatory intro track every song is at least six minutes all the way up to twenty plus so you have a large portion to digest when you listen to Rooms. Tracks like With These Words and My Best to Be despite the slow pace have a sense of desperate energy that makes the tracks come to life. The keyboards that are used have an electronic feel to em as opposed to say, neoclassical leanings or the good ol’ Hammond organ effect that gives the song an odd edge to them as well. The instrumental The Calm Before the Storm is my favorite track and gets high marks because it is basically a flamenco guitar solo the entire six and a half minutes. The twenty minute plus epic that follows runs every inch of the Progressive Metal spectrum with its wildly varying styles. In The End starts off with an orchestrated intro that sounds like it came from a Star Wars from Hell movie soundtrack before getting frantic on us with a conglomeration of instruments going off. The song continues in this way from almost overwhelmingly dense to letting off just long enough to catch your breath until the 10.15 mark where it all of a sudden shifts gears into an Arabian-esque lament. More flamenco guitars with dreamlike female vocals make the next couple of minutes stunning, truly unique and a damn fine listen.

Another thing I wanna point out is that this band is signed to a new label, MetalAges Records. They have other high quality bands such as Kategory V and Theocracy in their roster, I advise fans of melodic / progressive metal to check them out as well as the other bands on MetalAges. As for Power of Omens, Rooms of Anguish will appeal to the fan of Progressive Metal that doesn’t want to hear how exactly Sir Guitarist got his degree at Berklee and can doodle away until you die of boredom. So in short, a technical / progressive metal album that is very enjoyable without all the trappings of most other bands in the genre.