(Progressive Metal) Dimension Act - Manifestation Of Progress (2012), FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Progressive metal. Some may call it a worn- out, diluted expression, but if one were to describe the musical universe of Dimension Act in two words, that’s an obvious first choice. Then add melodic, heartfelt, passionate and existential, and you’ve might just captured the essence of what these Norwegians are all about.

Formed by Marius Nilsen and Tom Vidar Salangli in mid 2008, Dimension Act soon found its way beyond the initial objective of a side project. After composing, arranging, and doing album pre- production for about a year, with Marius Nilsen handling all the instrumental duties and Tom Vidar Salangli all the vocals, the creative duality found themselves in the need of a lineup completion. During 2009, drummer Frank Nordeng Røe (Withem, Big City, Marathon), bass player Tommy Granli (Dale, The Maudlin Hounds) and keyboard wizard Kristian Berg was brought in, initially, as session musicians to record the band’s debut album, Manifestation of Progress. November 2009 saw the band enter Lionheart Studios (Illusion Suite, Circus Maximus, Jorn) in Oslo, Norway, as well as their own, personal studios, working on the album for almost a year, not wrapping up the sessions until October 2010. After spending about 6 months finishing up the cover art, booklet design, as well as settling other practical matters, the band started to look for a suitable record label for the release of Manifestation of Progress. After reviewing different alternatives, the band eventually signed with the renowned American label Progrock Records (Frameshift, Roswell Six, Amaran’s Plight, Michael Sadler) in late 2011.

With Progrock Records, the band has found their perfect partner in crime. “Just like Dimension Act”, Marius Nilsen, the band’s co- founder and driving force, explains, “Shawn Gordon and Progrock Records are all about the music and the endless dedication and admiration of the progressive rock and metal genre. Our newfound home at Progrock Records brings a great sense of both achievement and fulfillment, and we are confident that Dimension Act and Progrock Records together can build the foundation needed for a long and prosperous career. Sharing label with Frameshift, who is responsible for one of the greatest debut prog albums the last 10 years is also quite a bonus, to say the least. And what about those Roswell Six albums? Home sweet home!”.

The debut album of Dimension Act, Manifestation of Progress, is scheduled for a physical and digital world wide release through Progrock Records early March 2012.

The Progressive Metal genre continues to expand with quality acts, one of the more recent being this quintet from Norway called Dimension Act. This is their first studio release and its entitled Manifestation of Progress. Having formed in 2009 the band is made up of Tom-Vidar Salangli (lead and backing vocals), Marius Nilsen (guitars, additional keyboards), Kristan Berg (keyboards), Tommy Granli (bass) and Frank Nordeng Røe (drums and percussion). This debut has been four years in the making and as far as melodic progressive metal is concerned it’s quite an accomplishment.

Manifestation of Progress consists of only four tracks although the CD closer clocks in at over 30-minutes, so you are not getting short-changed on the music side. In fact there’s a full 54-minutes here, enough to satisfy any fan of heavy prog. Everything starts off in grand fashion with “Cosmic Chaos” [5:10]; the bass and drums are off doing double time setting the foundation, but hold-on just a second, wrapped around the crunchy guitar are plenty of keyboards and when the vocals come in, in English I might add, they’re delivered aggressively but without histrionics. Like all the other pieces here, this song, even though it’s the shortest of the bunch still goes through a couple of time and tempo change-ups. Even more pronounced is that the band is not afraid to really pull everything back for just vocals and keyboards in the middle of a tune. Changing pace or turning the tempo around on-a-dime is no problem here. The epic tune “Drawing the Lines of Mortal Existence” [31:38] starts off more like heavy symphonic with some great hooks and musical motifs inserted as a change of pace; in fact this song more than the others really shows the band’s ability and it’s much more than just playing the heavy stuff. Four-minutes into this and the smooth guitar is playing a soft jazzy line which makes all the heavier parts stand out that much more dramatically.
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I’ve often said the challenge with the Prog Metal genre as I see it, is how to sound different, given that loud, hard, crunchy guitars, rumbling bass and pounding drums played at super-fast speeds gets a bit samey after a while. Fortunately Dimension Act has not forgotten that the core of a song is its melody and there’s plenty of that inserted into the band’s compositions. I give them high-marks for this debut and look forward to watching their sound develop.
From http://www.jerrylucky.com/

Tom Vidar Salangli – Lead and backing vocals
Marius Nilsen – Electric and acoustic guitars, additional keyboards
Kristian Berg – Keyboards
Tommy Granli – Bass guitars
Frank Nordeng Røe – Drums