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I've always thought that pianos sound great in hard rock or metal. Their delicate fluttering contrasts excellently with the heavy and aggressive riffing of the rest of the music. Unfortunately for me, most hard rock/metal keyboardists favour Hammond organs or the sci-fi sounds of synths. Winds' Andy Winters is the exception to this rule, as he opts for a piano for the most part on Prominence and Demise. The interplay between him and guitarist Carl Tidemann, whose prominent neoclassical guitar playing is the focal point of Winds' sound, is all the better because of this. Hellhammer also works in their favour as he shows some impressive technicality as well as bringing forth the thunder he learned while playing in Mayhem and Dimmu Borgir to help out the band's metal side.

Sadly the "metal" half of "progressive metal" is where Winds fall short. While he can certainly bring the shred for his leads and licks, Tidemann's riffing is less inspired, consisting of bland chugging that lacks any sort of groove or energy. This also cripples Lars Eric Si's vocal delivery because, while he avoids the cheesetastic histrionics stereotypical of prog metal, his melodies sound flat and awkward on top of the riffs.

I think that Winds could make a good, or even great, progressive rock album. During the quiet parts of Prominence and Demise everything clicks perfectly; the keys, the vocals, the guitar, the bass, the drums all work together very well. These only consist of about a third of the album, but as soon as the guitar playing involves palm muting it all falls apart like a house of cards that has had its entire bottom level swiped away. Metal lives or dies on the band's ability to riff, and Winds just don't have that.

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Reviewer: Jeff Mcquiggan Added: October 22nd 2007