Band: CORTEX IMPULSE
Country: Russia
Title: Once in a Lifetime
Label: Grimm Distribution / Satanath
Year: 2017
Style: Progressive Metal 

Review:
The Moskow based quartet Cortex Impulse debuts with this 6 tracks EP 2 years after their foundation, offering to the World their own take on Progressive Metal heavily guided by bands such as Fates Warning and Rush, but I can also spot influences from older ('70's) Prog Rock and even Prog Thrash (at times the band sounds like a lighter and Progressive oriented version of Megadethn mostly because of the vocals), so quite a sophisticated effort I'd say. Unfortunately after spining the disc a few times already my impression has cemented to: throughout the 25 minutes I have the constant feeling they are not giving it all, like they are not convinced by what they are doing, so how could their music convince us? But don't get me wrong, they are good musicians, their compositions are blending all sort of good patterns from this genre, and there's clear potential in the band. What I feel needed more work on this EP is: the production (crystal clear indeed, but at times too synthetic sounding and maybe too light to make an impact), the vocal approach (the tone is excellent, but the guy sounds like he's not pushing it to the full, like if he's afraid of not being out of tone) and the compositions catchiness level (except for the title track that has a very good guitar lead that sticks to your mind, I don't think you'll be able to remember much after the audition. Being such a young band, and this being their debut EP I think they did a good job, they managed to prove they have rich potential, hopefully they'll be able to take it further.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6.5/10

Contact:
facebook.com/cortex.impulse
satanath.com