And here we have Tom de Wit, a.k.a. TDW returning. With a double disc no less. And there is also a special edition with an added bonus acoustic live DVD. Another change is the inclusion of a band, Dreamwalkers Inc., making this an octet (yes, that is 8 people). Besides probably making every stage seem crowded, I guess there are many benefits for having a band perform your songs. More instruments (violin!) and diversity, more vocals and perhaps even more ideas to enrich your musical concepts.
So where does this leave us? Well disc 1 is called The Idealist, or the light disc. Disc 2 is The Cynic, so the dark side. Every CD holds 4 songs, with one of those being of epic (22 minutes+) proportion. Total play time is over 80 minutes, so you are definitely in for a ride! It’s been a couple of years since his previous release, but if memory serves me right, this sounds a couple of notches better. I also think Tom sounds more confident with his singing now, but that might be imagining on my part.
Since this falls into prog metal territory, y’all know what the genre standards are. And all the boxes are ticked. While this music always requires repeated plays to show its true colours, I think Tom and band deliver in spades. From big, almost operatic parts, to thrashy speed metal, to fragile fragments and everything you could imagine in between. Solo’s in abundance of course, we do want them to show off a bit now don’t we?
All kidding aside, I say hats off to TDW and Dreamwalkers Inc.. Impressive from start to finish and something anyone serious about the genre needs to digest.
