Virginia Beach’s Lifewalker is a hodge podge of musicians from bygone prog and metal bands based around the area. In anticipation of their already recorded full-length debut album, they are gearing up to release their new EP RX, a collection of seven songs from the aforementioned larger record. Together, the five musicians combine their influences, and produce a brand of progressive metal that is at once both dramatic and _cine_matic.
A trademark of the progressive genre, and the main argument of many of its detractors, is the enormous length of many of the songs, but none of the tracks on this EP pass the five minute mark. Nevertheless, the band manages to pack quite a lot of raw emotion and musical heft into such short bursts. The record is a conceptual piece of sorts, in that every song, with titles like “Diagnose Me” and “Hollow Vessels,” deals with the issues and themes of mental illness in a brave and bold way.
Relentless as it is captivating, RX is due out April 16th, and if it is anything to go by, the full album it stems from should be nothing short of fantastic as well.
