Project Creation – Dawn on Pyther

By Olav Björnsen 

Project Creation is a musical project put together by Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores, as a vehicle for releasing a series of concept albums with a continuing science fiction story. Dawn on Pyther is the second album in the series; the first being The Floating World from 2005.

Musically this is a modern sounding album, exploring a lot of different moods on the 10 tracks here. All songs have shorter or longer passages of synth-based ambient-influenced moods, which in most cases are combined with atmospheric metal and prog metal. On most tracks, the metal sections dominate and the song goes back and forth between these slightly different moods several times before the song ends.

Lush synths are a central characteristic of the music and the metal sections typically have a dark and at times dirty guitar sound dominating. Adding variation to the songs is the inclusion of some real well-made melodic piano themes, and a few tracks are spiced with some folk music influenced elements.

The overall mood on this release is one of epic melodrama. Dramatic vocals, dramatic instrumental parts; it’s all epic and all dramatic. There’s a few more mellow sections giving much needed relief, but the epic melodrama is a common denominator here.

Project Creation has been compared to Ayreon previously, and on this release the similarities are more obvious. I’d claim that Project Creation is a tad more complex in their musical output than Ayreon ever was, but the music should be appealing to the same basic audience.

The songs here are a mixed affair, though. “The Dawn on Pyther” ebbs and flows between ambient-influenced moods and prog metal sections, without really convincing. “Flying Thoughts” adds more atmospheric moods as well as some folk music influences, and is a good and intriguing track.

“I Am (the Restless One)” is a quirky track where ambient moods and folk-inspired sections are mixed with atmospheric metal and prog metal, with an ok overall result. “Dragonfly Garden” is one of the shorter tunes at a bit less than 7 minutes and is a more intriguing mix of the above mentioned elements. The ambient and atmospheric moods are being explored a bit more here though.

“The Voice of Cheops” combines ambient moods with atmospheric metal and prog metal, with dramatic themes dominating without really convincing. “Intermission” is a short ambient but epic mood piece of the highest standard. “Sons of the Stars” is another short track at barely over 6 minutes, combining ambient and folk-influenced elements with atmospheric metal and prog metal. Not a standout track, but another decent offering. “Growing Feeling” is much the same, but the song is longer.

“Voyage of the Dragonfly” has less of the metal bits and more of the ambient-influenced moods, and the song profits from that. “The Dusk on Pyther” is the last song here, with an intriguing mix of ambient, folk-inspired and metal in the first half, and a chaotic metal-inspired second half. Decent track, but no more.

Personally I think this is a decent release, and an improvement over the first album in this series. Fans of Ayreon and others that appreciate melodramatic, bombastic and epic metal-based music are advised to check out this release. Especially if you don’t mind good synth work and slightly more complex music that what Arjen Lucassen does in Ayreon.