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Russia's Overwind is a relatively new Progressive Metal band and their debut album, Illustrator, combines some disparate elements that you might not normally hear together. The vocals are kind of a late 80s Hair Metal scream with a definite bluesy punch while the music is down-tuned and rather technical. This makes listening to Illustrator a "Jeckyll and Hyde" experience as the different approaches don't mesh all that well. One minute it sounds like Mark Slaughter is going to tell you to fly to the angels, the next John Petrucci is laying down a solo. Things don't really come together until the final track on the album, the eponymous "Overwind." The time changes are brisk, the playing smart and sharp and the melody line is easy to follow all the way through, but the piece is instrumental. Vocalist Alexander Chumakov isn't a bad singer but his style and delivery don't do much for Overwind.

I wish I could say better things about Overwind but Illustrator is only a fair debut from a band that is long on talent but needs to tweak the chemistry of the final product.