Band:	Hourglass
Album:	Subconscious
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	June 04, 2004
Guest review by:	Oracles

01. The Hammers Strike
02. Altered State
03. Mists Of Darkness
    1 - Part I: The Mist
    2 - Part II: Washed Away
    3 - Part III: Silent Suffering
04. Thread The Needle
05. Exit Wounds
    1 - Part I: Farewell
    2 - Part II: The Soldier
    3 - Part III: The Unbeliever
    4 - Part IV: Daddy's Little Girl
    5 - Part V: The Believer
    6 - Part VI: Widowed
    7 - Part VII: The Soldier Alive

If there is an album that deserves more of a shout or recognition in the progressive metal/rock genre, then you must look to a random American band in the quaint, calm state of Utah, USA, called Hourglass. They have gone through many member changes, but Brick Williams keeps producing some of the best prog metal I've ever heard, especially when Cody Walker's (ex-2007) powerful voice was at the helm during Subconscious. Everyone, everywhere will always state the same favourite progressive metal/rock bands like Dream Theater, Opeth, Tool, Symphony X, Rush, Devin Townsend, Porcupine Tree, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, and others. I always say that is nice, but you need to expand and go beyond the box of these bands...true that there is a ton of awful or boring prog out there, but Hourglass, especially Subconscious, is a band that at least deserves a listen.

An album I haven't been let down by is my recommendation to music fans who want to journey out of their comfort zone. Subconscious is not unique by progressive metal standards, but is more of an album that takes you through a thinking journey with superb songwriting, lyrical narration, and production (a lot like Threshold in terms of a "thinking band"). It starts off with an epic song talking about morality in "The Hammer Strikes." After listening to this song, your expectations for this album will go through the roof; you'll want more and you'll most definitely get more. Next is "Altered Mind," which is more emotional and slower than the opening epic. Then we get to another legendary song in the three-part "Mists Of Darkness" trilogy. Here, the first one ("The Mist") is a short instrumental, but turns up the passion in "Washed Away," which sings about depression only leading to darker abysses. Next, the "Mists Of Darkness" ends with "Silent Suffering," which is more emotional and slower than "Washed Away," but brings out their chemistry at the highest point. Furthermore, this songs speaks even deeper of depression and the dreadful things in life that add little-by-little each day leading to the graduation of suffering. Only you and you alone can reach into your soul and fix what hurts you. Following this is "Thread The Needle," which is okay, but the majority of the time I pass it to get to the seven-part epic song entitled "Exit Wounds." This seven-segment song is the last one on Subconscious, and is a concept song which shows the different perspective of family members when the father is deployed to war.

Their off-time/beat signatures for all the songs and combining into rhythmic verses is top notch. They're that type of band where the chemistry is exquisite--they know when parts in the song need to be basic and focus on simplicity, but also when certain parts can ask for technical elements while not overproducing the part. If I were to describe Subconscious in a couple of sentences, it would be this paragraph.

They are not like Genesis or Pink Floyd, which started prog in the '60s; they're not like Rush or Dream Theater in terms of bringing technicality in melodic phases; and they're not like Death, which widened progressive metal to more genres like death metal. As I said in the beginning, they're just an underrated progressive metal band from a quiescent town in Utah, but damn do they know how to make music.