Ripples In Time is the debut album of this new progressive metal sensation from Denmark. The CD opens with “Nightmachine” and it becomes immediately clear that this band has been influenced by bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Pain Of Salvation and King’s X. “Nightmachine” drives forward like Dream Theater in their good days combining powerful guitar riffs with melodic interludes and Chrome Shift’s opener is certainly very well chosen. The second song is not nearly as good and starts with keyboards that sound like they come straight from Dream Theater’s Images And Words but fortunately quickly turns a bit more original albeit terribly repetitive. It gets better from there on ‘though.

Although Chrome Shift once in awhile seem to borrow ideas, the band manages to convince me for the most part. The melodies are good, the guitar and keyboard solos are magnificent, the lead breaks are well placed and well played but most importantly the vocals are good. Rasmus Bak does truly an excellent job on this album and his voice has an original edge to it that many singers nowadays lack.

Yeah, this band is certainly talented.

What then is my problem with Ripples In Time? Well, fact is that I too often think “I’ve heard this melody before”. The band might have found their own sound to a certain extent but if they truly want to succeed they will have to work on their originality. It is a good album and especially the last four songs, which form the title track are worth mentioning as well as the aforementioned opener “Nightmachine”. The only really bad song on this album is track eight called “Sorry”. After two minutes of hearing the singer whine the word sorry I already got the point but unfortunately it drags on for another two minutes.

What can I say more? Oh yeah, the album has excellent cover artwork and a crystal clear production. Look out for this band in the future ‘cause if these guys can channel their talent in a more original way then nothing is going to stop this band from becoming the new progressive metal sensation!