Unable to find the right voice to match their incredible instrumental abilities, the members of Houston, Texas based Stride made the tough decision to release their first album 'Music Machine' as an instrumental effort. This was in 2001 and the results g
Summary:Way better than expected Overall Rating: Comment:I was pleasantly surprised by this album. I listened to a few snippets on the net somewhere and decided to give it a try and I am really glad I did. If you think you'd like a combination of Dream Theater and 80's Rock (Journey, Firehouse, Racer X, all come to mind when listening to the CD) then I think you will enjoy this as much as I have. The guitarist is really quite good and the singer takes me back to the day. My only disappintment is that I don't see any other albums by Stride out there....
Summary:Terrific prog/melodic metal Overall Rating: Comment:This cd is truely a pleasure to listen to. All of the sounds mix together well, and almost seem to explode in my head. It has great elements of prog, melodic and traditional metal. The only complaint is that there are 9 tracks and 2 of them are instrumental. But, I guess that is better than filler tracks.
Summary:Nice effort, just a little weak. Overall Rating: Comment:Firstly, I have to say that the lyric, "I sing to More Than a Feelin'" is one of the best lines ever. So great.
I saw Stride at ProgPower USA a few years back, I think it was ProgPower USA VI? I can't remember the number, but that is unimportant. Their live show was powerful and entertaining but honestly the part I remember the best is them covering a chunk of Rush's 2112 and while being able to both play and sing to Rush well is very rare they sounded fantastic.
As for the album, I believe that this is a good CD, but not much more than that. There are a few songs I really really like, "Imagine", "Alive" and "How Far" being my favorites, but while the rest of the album is good I just don't feel the need to listen to it. There is some sort of pop quality that these guys have that I really dig, they're still able to rip you apart with some crazy shredding on guitar, keyboard, or bass but they don't need to do that to sound great (something more bands need to realize).
So, the musicianship is top notch, the vocalist is great (though there will certainly be people who can't stand him), and a few of these songs really are the real deal. So what's the problem with the album? Well, the rest of the album, as I said, didn't really do much for me personally. Additionally, the sound quality is not very good, the production could have been so much better! I don't really think it's too fair to bash a band for their production but it is so important to the overall quality of the album. The production isn't terrible but it sounds outdated at best and like it could have been done in a basement studio (not an exaggeration).
If you like the more pop-driven types of progressive metal then I would definitely recommend giving Stride a chance, they don't have a very powerful sound so don't be expecting Symphony X's "Inferno" when you hit play, think more of Rush's "Hold Your Fire", honestly (truly teriffic album by the way).
Summary:AWESOME AND SOLID Overall Rating: Comment:THIS CD IS AWESOME! AS A LONG TIME LISTENER OF PROG. MUSIC (DREAM THEATER,REDEMPTION,RUSH,FATE'S WARNING, ETC.) I KNOW TALENT AND GOOD SONGWRITING WHEN I HEAR IT. MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD THAN THEATER, BUT STILL HAS GOOD HOOKS. SINGER IN THE REALM OF RIK EMMET (TRIUMPH). I HIGHLY RECCOMEND THIS ONE!
Summary:Good Prog/Metal/Rock CD Overall Rating: Comment:I'm just going to make a few points..This is a "Good" Cd not a great one, The singer is very good, the music is very much Evergrey/DreamTheater/Symph X mixture with some Journey/Kansas thrown in as people have said. I like it, but it doesnt blow me away like Evergreys "In search of truth" did. If you enjoy good singing, and good production you'll like this cd.
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