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High-school buddies Ray Luokka and Brian Noonan hadall but given up on becoming rock stars. But years later, in little ol’Jackson, Wis., the guitarist and drummer found a vocalist with wide range and aserious bassist, and decided to give it one more shot. Wise move.
Rise is aprogressive-metal tour de force that comes along at the right time, as a newgeneration of headbangers raised on Dream Theater, Symphony X, Kamelot, TadMorose and Seven Witches seeks out similar bands. This is WiszdomStone’s firstfull-length album, and despite slightly muddied production and a fewby-the-numbers duds, rousing songs like “Unforgiven,” “Take This Cup” and “TheSky Is Falling” should convince a label such as Nightmare Records or NuclearBlast to reissue this independent release to a wider audience. What’s more,guest appearances by former Queensryche guitarist Mike Stone and Kamelotdrummer Casey Grillo already give WiszdomStone street cred.
