Produced by Janne Wirman
Released: 2002
Janne Wirman is the guy who brings the 70s over-the-top keys wizardry of Jon Lord and Don Airey back to metal with Children of Bodom and on Beyond Abilities he stepped out on his own again with his Warmen project. Like the first album, this Warmen excursion is grounded in a traditional metal style with virtually unrestrained virtuoso playing from Wirman and his guitarists, brother Antii and Sami Virtanen, trading licks and bouncing extended solo breaks off one another in an audacious display of musical proficiency.
Whereas Unknown Soldier was almost exclusively an instrumental set, however, Beyond Abilities features vocal tracks on five of its eleven cuts. Somewhat appropriately, Timo Kotipelto from Stratovarius appears on two of them, both of which could quite easily have come from one of his band’s more recent (and by that we mean less than brilliant) albums. Sinergy’s Kimberly Goss makes a reappearance here too, vocalising the hard rock styled ‘Hidden’ that contains what is almost Night Ranger’s riff from ‘This Boy Needs to Rock’, as well as the cover of Heart’s ‘Alone’, which seems downright incongruous here but does highlight her range if nothing else.
‘Dawn’ with Pasi Nykanen at the microphone is almost the perfect progressive metal track however with quite a wide musical scope being compressed into a single unit and perhaps marks the high point of the album with the exception of ‘Salieri Strikes Back’ and ‘Finale’ both of which basically dwarf everything else on the set with their sheer awe-inspiring ingenuity.
Despite Beyond Abilities being a rather inconsistent album, a slow beginning with a strong second half broken up by something inexplicable (‘Alone’! Why?), it is still a worthwhile listen for those who like to indulge in overindulgence.
Released: 2002
Janne Wirman is the guy who brings the 70s over-the-top keys wizardry of Jon Lord and Don Airey back to metal with Children of Bodom and on Beyond Abilities he stepped out on his own again with his Warmen project. Like the first album, this Warmen excursion is grounded in a traditional metal style with virtually unrestrained virtuoso playing from Wirman and his guitarists, brother Antii and Sami Virtanen, trading licks and bouncing extended solo breaks off one another in an audacious display of musical proficiency.
Whereas Unknown Soldier was almost exclusively an instrumental set, however, Beyond Abilities features vocal tracks on five of its eleven cuts. Somewhat appropriately, Timo Kotipelto from Stratovarius appears on two of them, both of which could quite easily have come from one of his band’s more recent (and by that we mean less than brilliant) albums. Sinergy’s Kimberly Goss makes a reappearance here too, vocalising the hard rock styled ‘Hidden’ that contains what is almost Night Ranger’s riff from ‘This Boy Needs to Rock’, as well as the cover of Heart’s ‘Alone’, which seems downright incongruous here but does highlight her range if nothing else.
‘Dawn’ with Pasi Nykanen at the microphone is almost the perfect progressive metal track however with quite a wide musical scope being compressed into a single unit and perhaps marks the high point of the album with the exception of ‘Salieri Strikes Back’ and ‘Finale’ both of which basically dwarf everything else on the set with their sheer awe-inspiring ingenuity.
Despite Beyond Abilities being a rather inconsistent album, a slow beginning with a strong second half broken up by something inexplicable (‘Alone’! Why?), it is still a worthwhile listen for those who like to indulge in overindulgence.
- Beyond Abilities
- Spark
- Hidden
- Trip to...
- Dawn
- Singer's Chance
- Alone
- Confessions
- Salieri Strikes Back
- War of Worlds
- Finale
Rating: 78%
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