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James LaBrie > Elements of Persuasion > Reviews
James LaBrie - Elements of Persuasion

Not the first one, nor the best - 58%

LuisC, March 4th, 2024

Elements of Persuasion, released in 2005, is listed as the first album James LaBrie (Of Dream Theater fame) released under his own name; but it's far from being the first album he ever released in a solo project, as he also released 2 other albums under the MullMuzzler name (Or "James LaBrie's MullMuzzler"). The album features LaBrie's longtime music companion, keyboardist Matt Guillory, with whom he worked in those previous MullMuzzler albums, along with bassist Brian Beller and none other than Mike Mangini on the drums, who would then go on and become Dream Theater's own drummer from 2011 to 2023. The only visible change in the lineup for this album seemed to be the guitar, which introduced Marco Sfogli as the only new band member; so it's safe to say that, even if the name has changed, the band at the moment of the album's release was mostly unchanged.

The sound of this album, however, is nothing like LaBrie's previous albums. To bring some context, this album was released in the mid 2000s, a time where nü-metal was still a popular genre to the extent of influencing a couple of Dream Theater songs that were released around the time ("Honor Thy Father, "The Glass Prison"); and while at the time of this album's release the genre was already starting a decline in popularity on the mainstream rock charts in favor of post-hardcore, post-grunge and metalcore music; it heavily influenced the style of the album, with LaBrie's band ditching its prog beginnings in favor of a more direct and metal-oriented sound.

This means that, given that it was their first foray into metal territory (And having chosen a subgenre that is quite narrow in terms of creativity as their sound blueprint) the album's style is all over the place. It starts strong with a fast-paced opener, "Crucify" in which Mangini's precise drumming and Sfogli's riffs stand out, and one might even feel hopeful that the album might not be that bad of an alternative metal album... That is, until the second song kicks in. You see, the album has moments where the metal style seemingly works out, namely "Drained" and "Pretender", but the rest of their attempts at nü-metal are completely laughable, specially given how uncreative they come out to be. This band should be grateful that Mike Shinoda and Co. probably never heard these songs back in the day, because a lawsuit would have been inevitable if they had done so: songs like "Oblivious" or "Alone" seem to be at times directly influenced by Linkin Park songs from their Hybrid Theory or Meteora era (Namely "Points of Authority" and "One Step Closer"). I'm glad neither Guillory nor LaBrie ever felt as self-confident to try and rap in this album, though, which is more than I could say for bands like Machine Head; and I'm also glad they didn't follow the idea of cutting out the guitar solos, since Sfogl's output is probably the best part of the heavier tracks, but the sound mixing, for example, is as bad as you'd expect a nü-metal album to be, with drowned and downtuned guitar riffs, scratching turntables and a bloated bass.

The standouts of the album are the ones that don't follow the Linkin Park or Mudvayne formula. "Smashed", "Slightly Out of Reach", "Understand" (Which had a memorable guitar solo from Sfogli and was sadly only featured on some special editions) and to a lesser extent "Lost", are all more mellow and melodic songs, in which the band sounds a lot more comfortable with itself: The keyboards don't sound invasive, LaBrie's voice fits right in and the mix improves greatly. The song lyrics are far more genuine too, where the band delves on the philosophical, personal and intimate topics they've always liked to write about in previous albums, instead of the angsty, rebellious and pretentious pastiche lyrics shown on heavier tracks like "Undecided".

This was more a miss than a hit for LaBrie's band, and overall a coarse and sloppy first attempt at metal. Seeing a band with such talented members as this one choosing to make a nü-metal album is like seeing Steve Vai release an album full of pop country covers. Nevertheless, looking back on the album, the talent was already there: LaBrie's dynamic voice in both heavy and soft-sounding songs, Guillory's atmospheric keyboard textures and Sfogli's sheer guitar virtuosism; they only needed some better songs to feature them in. Luckily for them (And us) they did, because the next albums they did together (Static Impulse and Impermanent Resonance) are far better albums than this one, and you should probably check them out first instead of this one if you're starting to explore LaBrie's varied discography.

Favorite tracks: "Slightly Out of Reach", "Smashed", "Crucify", "Understand"
Low points: "Alone", "Freaks", "Undecided", "Oblivious"

Pretender - 42%

OzzyApu, April 25th, 2021

I got suckered into thinking this was Dream Theater’s Octavarium back in the day. The situation stemmed from leaks and file name changes between the two albums (their release dates being only a couple of months apart added to the believability). This aforementioned con-job / prank tarnished the reputation of an album that already has enough going against it. If one were to expect a continuation of LaBrie’s meaningful Mullmuzzler material or Dream Theater’s own ostentatious output, they’d be pretty disappointed. LaBrie himself wasn’t interested in that. Around this time, the guy had a hard-on for bands like System of a Down, Machine Head, and Mudvayne. Thus, the first solo album under his own moniker ends up being both in and out of his element.

A progressive metal frontman turning nu-groove guru isn’t the result of an epiphany. It’s him hearing something he perceived as cool and being inspired by it. Hearing the guy who sang on Images and Words doing what I’m hearing on this is embarrassing. Like someone’s dad trying to relate to the youth. “Oblivious” has LaBrie going full OzzFest (because the world needed that). “In Too Deep” sounds like an amalgamation of Sevendust songs, except LaBrie forgot to do anything interesting. “Alone” is cut from the same cloth as Linkin Park: start-stop chugs, turntable usage, and reliance on the chorus to act as the anchor. Except when Linkin Park did it, there was more variety and balance. I’m seriously questioning how I was duped as a teenager into actually thinking this was Dream Theater. Maybe some Train of Thought-isms, but the vibe is different, the ideas are bland, and lyrically we’re creeping into Machine Head territory.

But see, amidst this terrible trash there’re two sides to this album - one that’s boorish and misguided, and another seeped in emotion with a proclivity for direction and purpose. With it you can make a solid case that LaBrie buried treasure under a junk heap. “Pretender” is a cut above the other aggressive rockers in its lively tempo and catchiness. The combination of the fusion-tinged “Lost” and melancholic “Smashed” provide softer, tactful approaches that Elements of Persuasion didn’t have up to that point. “Drained” is the climactic closer with weighty guitar barrages, great hooks, and a soaring solo. There’s a real grasp of writing melodies that function with the heavier elements, and LaBrie sounds wonderfully expressive as one would expect. Among these is the gleaming gem that is “Slightly Out of Reach”, a ballad that is every bit as resonant and elegant as one could hope: beautiful vocals, touching atmosphere, and a lengthy, remarkable solo segment between Guillory and Sfogli.

Elements of Persuasion was a missed opportunity. There’s a great album in here somewhere, and it’s a damn shame the bad outweighs the good. Had it not been the butt of a joke and utilized the talents of the band in totality, they could have made something timeless. Instead, there’s over an hour of music and less than half of it is worth listening to – that’s absurd. The production is polished, they didn’t cut corners unless you count the writing for a lot of it, and it sucks that most of it was dumbed-down to cater to a different demographic. Check it out just for the aforementioned songs worth hearing and pass the rest out of existence.

LaBrie's midlife crisis - 24%

Human666, April 16th, 2020

Wow...I never knew that James Labrie was in a Linkin Park tribute band!

What can I say about this one? This album is extremely pale compared to Dream Theater. The songwriting hovers between early 00's mallcore and tracks that sound like Dream Theater's cuts that never made it to the final album. Very uninspired material, flat vocal melodies and interchangeable riffs that go through the motions.

Most of the lyrics could fit easily into a top 40 pop chart. A lot of clichés and predictable rhymes that are so hackneyed, I have no idea why not singing "yada yada yada" instead. I don't think there was too much of a thought process or soul searching with the lyric writing, seems more like a collection of placeholders that fill the blank spaces required for the vocal melodies.

The only good thing about this album is Labrie's vocal performance. He's reaching some very high notes here and there and has a very dynamic tone which enable him to hover easily between the more aggressive parts of the album to the more calm sections. However, the material itself is utterly banal so he doesn't reach nowhere near his full potential.

Anyway, save your bandwidth, Elements of Persuasion is a very generic album that doesn't make justice to the person behind it.

Out of his element - 51%

Pfuntner, December 2nd, 2009

So I guess that Linkin Park is right across the street from the Dream Theater if this album is any indication of musical geography. Not to say that this is anywhere near as bad as that plague, but it does share some symptoms.

First I guess I should get the positives out of the way before getting to the really juicy stuff. Disclaimer: I am one of the few people that actually enjoys James LaBrie’s voice. Sure he’s sucked live for the majority of his career (except for his performances pre-food poisoning, and his recent return to form after Octavarium) but the guy has some real skill and excellent control over dynamics. Here his voice sounds great, which shouldn’t be too surprising considering that he wrote the vocal melodies himself. The problem with this is that he stays firmly in his comfort zone and never ventures out of it. Another positive element at work here is Mike Mangini who needs to play metal more often instead of teaching double bass to music nerds at Berklee and doing detergent commercials. Mangini’s performance is rock solid, but sadly the music doesn’t really call for him to do anything very interesting.

And there lies the big problem with this record. Very little of interest happens, and when something ear grabbing does happen, it is almost always because it’s really bad. The one exception here is the fast thrashy bit in “Crucify” which is far and away the best song here. Even then, the majority of the tune is spent playing very middle of the road downtuned hard rock, with a few Dream Theater-esque moments to give the illusion of this being prog. The same could basically be said for the rest of the album. There’s a lot of chugging, vaguely heavy but bland riffage, and you can’t get through a song without being assaulted by heavily repeated choruses that are supposed to be catchy. There are some fast shredding parts every now and then, but they aren’t very memorable and seem to be there just to make the prog fans happy. The other mode of song writing here are the generic ballad tunes, the worst of which is easily “Smashed” which forced me constantly pause it in order to find other things to do with my time. These songs are even more pointless than the heavy tracks because they have absolutely no emotional weight.

So for the most part this is a generic and harmless hard rock album. And if it were just that, I would give it a score somewhere in the 60’s. But sadly for all of us, there are songs like “Alone”, “Freaks” and “Oblivious” on this disc, and they must be accounted for. I was introduced to heavy music through nu-metal, so you can’t sneak shit like this by me, James. Adding electronic glitches to your riffs do not hide how lame said riffs are; in fact it draws attention to it. That opening Korn riff in “Oblivious” is cringe worthy, and is matched only by the distorted rapping that appears later in the track for worst moment on the album. You can’t hide the lameness of nu-metal by shredding over it either, especially when Marco Sfogli sounds exactly like John Petrucci except without all the awesome sucked out of him. Also, this whole thing is pretty horrendously overproduced and way too much emphasis is given to the electronic influences, which are for the most part pretty bad. Everything is very shiny sounding, except for the guitars, which are given a plastic sounding distortion that wouldn’t threaten a baby.

There are much worse things out there than this, but you really have no reason to subject yourself to them. If you’re a rabid Dream Theater fan and need to hear absolutely everything that every member of the band has even thought about recording than I guess you could pick this up, but nothing I could say would have stopped you anyway. If you’re a normal Dream Theater fan who enjoys the band, but is well aware of their flaws (people like me in other words), you probably won’t like this very much. If you’re not a Dream Theater fan at all then stay the hell away from this thing.

Elementary - 25%

DawnoftheShred, August 26th, 2008

It is no secret that I’m a big fan of Dream Theater. I own all of their albums, I’ve seen them live on a few occasions, I’ve got a fairly large collection of fan-made guitar tablature, and I even own a few solo/side project albums written by members. But if there was one member of Dream Theater whose solo album I wouldn’t be anticipating, it would be James LaBrie’s. Personally, I think he’s a pretty good singer (a lot of people don’t), but he contributes virtually nothing to his band’s songwriting process. An album of material penned by him would surely be nothing more than a shoddy imitation of things better performed by Dream Theater.

Sure enough, “Elements of Persuasion” is just that: a novice’s attempt at recreating just a slice of Dream Theater’s songwriting magic. Particularly, Dream Theater circa “Train of Thought” and “Octavarium,” so expect lots of downtuned guitars, electronic elements, and a straightforward approach more appropriate for mallcore than progressive metal. LaBrie brings his trademark vocals to the table, as well as a musically apt replacement ensemble, but he doesn’t bring a shred of dignity. “Crucify” kicks off with clean seven string riff (highly reminiscent of the opening of “A Change of Seasons”) before transforming into bizarre psuedo-thrash (Mike Mangini’s drum talent is wasted here). “Alone” is modern techno-rock that the flashiest guitar solo in the world couldn’t save. “Freaks” is nu-metal, which is never justifiable. And that’s the just the first three tracks. The sonic distinction between songs is actually fairly broad, but it’s never good; the songs merely alternate between various levels of insipidity (things are actually best when in ballad territory). On top of that, LaBrie’s vocals are mostly lifeless (occasionally he sounds quite excellent, such as during “Undecided” and “In Too Deep”) and his lyrics insubstantial, sapping more of what little strength the album had to begin with.

Basically, take “Train of Thought,” strip away the complex instrumentation and emotional resonance, and replace it with the unmistakable stench of modern rock/numetal, and you’ve got yourself “Elements of Persuasion.” Sound appetizing to you? Then go ahead, pick this one up. But keep in mind that the only thing this has in common with the music of Dream Theater is the voice of James LaBrie. With only fractional amounts of that band’s innovation, expression, or even their pop sensibility, LaBrie’s solo effort only goes to show that he’s nothing without them. This isn’t brilliant progressive metal; this is nu-metal with keyboards (Evanescence? Trust Company?). I must admit that it's not without its moments, but overall it’s not worth your precious disposable income.