Spyros Charmanis – Wound (2012)

Delivering a truly cinematic experience via Progressive Rock music, today we have Spyros Charmanis and his full-length release “Wound”. Clocking around 72 minutes of brilliant music, this self-released album delivers delightful compositions that any fan of traditional Progressive music will love from beginning to end. Spyros ability to craft intricate songs that are both musically and technically engaging without being overly done or falling into the ‘musical masturbation’ category that many Progressive bands unfortunately fall under.

The album opens with the intro track “Pushing The Sky”, a song that is very reminiscent of Progressive greats Dream Theater, and similar bands. With such a playful and strong opener, Spyros greatly indicates that this will be one quality and fun release. After the opener, the album ‘splits’ into three different sections of the conceptual foundations of this release. This concept basically tells the story of a fictional character through a series of experiences, too bad the artwork in this CD is very dark and we had trouble reading it unless we had a direct light source on the booklet.

Each of the ‘sections’ of the album consists of four tracks so we will be reviewing each section as a whole rather than doing the tiresome track-by-track analysis. In section I, we have some very cool atmospheric passages that nicely create the cinematic feeling of this release and remind us of the Polish band Lebowski and their excellent instrumental passages. The piano sections are very well crafted and the vocal arrangements really add up to the overall emotive mood of the release.

Section II opens up with a jazzy feel to it and it transforms into more energetic Progressive sections. The vocals also change to a bit more aggressive at points, making this section more intense and dramatic than the first one. Closing off the album with the section III, we kick it off with a very mellow lounge-type song. In this section we have our favorite track of this release titled “Exit Wound”, a 10-minute epic that nicely combines all the best elements of this release alongside some powerful guitar riffs.

In general, “Wound” is an excellent release that showcases Spyros Charmanis unlimited potential and talent. Each track is perfectly crafted with great attention to detail, making all of them very engaging and diverse. This release will greatly appeal anybody that likes Progressive Rock with a cinematic vibe and a solid lyrical foundation. If you aren’t sure, check it out in the band’s bandcamp site, and be sure to purchase a copy if you really like it.

Release: September 5th, 2012

Genre: Progressive Rock

Country: Greece