Dispyria – The Story Of Marion Dust
Dispyria – The Story Of Marion Dust
El Puerto Records
Release Date: 10/02/23
Running Time: 52:58
Review by Simon Black
7/10
It’s a bit of a running joke on these pages that I’m the only member of the team who actively enjoys this sort of stuff, which let’s face it, is a pretty niche taste here in the UK compared to mainland Europe, and more especially down here in South Wales where I live, where we only just got colour TV (and as for up in the Valleys)… But Part 3 of a huge story arc of Progressive Power Metal that I haven’t engaged with previously… am I insane taking this on? I’ve had a fair few of these things cross my bows in recent years, and one always has to approach them with a small amount of caution. ..
Let’s separate the concept aspect from the music for a start. Even single release story Power Metal records have a certain amount of risk associated with them. The danger always lies in accessibility. Artists lock themselves away writing this stuff, choosing in the main to either adapt existing works of fiction, historical events or bravest of all to write their own conceptual story. I say bravest, but actually more often than not original tales fare better, because the music and the story are crafted together and not hampered by the strictures of an existing text or documented events, which sometimes fail to adapt to the format, or run out of steam far too early. Even Sabaton, who are the masters of the historical, overdo things sometimes – churning a full album out when a punchy EP would have done the trick, but writing your own piece and spreading it over multiple releases takes guts stamina and err, sales to get beyond disk one. Accessibility is key, because in today’s era of casual listening, few have the attention span necessary to unpick a complex story arc. This at a minimum requires you to at least run the whole thing end to end and at worst several times, so if the story doesn’t grab you from the get-go easily it might as well not be there.
Then there’s the music. Again, when at their best, these are ensemble pieces, with the mighty Avantasia managing this best, by giving all the guests a character role in the story for as many tracks as they can afford to use them for in the hope that they can springboard off the contributors’ fan bases and turn that into some actual engagement. This is way easier when your guests are singing, and more of a challenge for the instrumentalists, so in this instance it’s better to stick to one set of players and leverage the vocalists as much as you can, which Juergen Walzer does really well with this project.
Where I was pleasantly surprised is that from the opening bars, it was clear that this was a well-crafted and accessible record, with each track having enough catchiness and melodic hooks to reel the casual listener in. I will be honest, it was the billing of Savatage’s Zak Stevens and Primal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers that lured me to try this, and they don’t disappoint, although Stevens takes the lion’s share of the work, and Scheeper’s seems to be guesting on about 20 different projects a year when Primal Fear aren’t on the road these days, so the novelty has worn off there.
In this instance what makes the difference is that Walzer knows how to write a catchy and engaging tune, and before you know it, regardless of who’s belting out the lyrics we are at the end of the disk, and I’m looping back round again to dig a little deeper. To be honest, I couldn’t care two hoots about the story, or the overall arc – what I’m looking for is engaging and well-crafted tunage, strong performance and an enjoyable afternoon, and in that respect Walzer delivers. What’s missing is a couple of standout boppers that can work independently of the whole (OK ‘Fire Child’ with its hooky opening riff comes close, but at 8 minutes it’s no quick-fire single), because that’s how you reel punters in, but nonetheless I was pleasantly surprised.
TRACKLISTING:
01. A Girl Called Marion
02. The Mark
03. Blue Mirror
04. Eternal Eye
05. The Resistance
06. Fire Child
07. Pandora’s Box
08. The Curse
LINE-UP:
Juergen Walzer – Guitars, Bass, Programming
Zak Stevens – Lead Vocals
Ralf Scheepers – Lead Vocals
Carsten “Lizard“ Schulz – Lead Vocals
Roland Moschel – Hammond Organ
Markus Pfeffer – Lead Guitar
Wolfgang Sing – Lead Guitars
Sabrina Roth – Backing Vocal
Stephan Hugo – Backing Vocals
LINKS:
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