Great singer meets cheap label product - A review of Sweet Oblivion's Sweet Oblivion

There is no doubt that Geoff Tate is an excellent singer who has recently redeemed himself with strong collaborations in the renowned Avantasia project. After numerous failed and short-lived projects, Frontiers Records attempts to put a stable band around the singer. The result is Sweet Oblivion and the first strike is the self-titled debut.

On the positive side, Geoff Tate's vocals sound great. He still has a crystal clear and dynamic voice that balances gloomy undertones and melodic lines quite efficiently.

However, the musicianship and songwriting on this album are bland, boring and exchangeable. The dull atmospheric keyboards are omnipresent. The guitar play is simplistic, repetitive and powerless. The bass guitar is nearly inaudible. The drum play is so slow and smooth that one gets the impression the drummer is on auto-pilot. The fluffy and muddy production makes the final product even less dynamic than it already is. The songwriting isn't much better and predictably focuses on Geoff Tate's vocal skills alone. All tracks are around four and a half minutes long and consist of fluffy musicianship to give all the attention to the singer who can unfold his skills eagerly. There isn't one single track that comes around with an exciting, memorable or unusual idea. This record is best described as particularly mellow melodic metal with great vocals but without any inspiration.

Sweet Oblivion isn't a band but an exchangeable instrumental backdrop put together by a label that has done this on numerous occasions for other artists in the past to showcase Geoff Tate's undeniable skills. The vocals are great but the other three members can't convince at all and the fluffy production only makes things worse. Listen to Avantasia songs featuring Geoff Tate or try to catch them on tour but ignore this cheap label product that doesn't do the great singer justice.

Final rating: 25%