Album Review: HeyLasFas! - Destiny

Band: HeyLasFas!

Genre: Equestrian Progressive Metal (For me anyway)

Album: Destiny: A Tale of Unicorn Wings (2014)

Track list:

<sub>1. Starborne - 2:44
2. Like You - 7:27
3. Maturity - 7:06
4. Faulted - 6:24
5. Control - 4:47
6. Something Missing - 11:04
7. Faultless - 7:40
8. Semantics - 7:45
9. Like You? - 2:26
10. Heartache - 5:39
11. Empty - 10:22
12. Silence - 2:47
13. Dusk - 11:08
14. One Last Time - 6:55
15. Destiny - 6:16
16. Fragile Wings - 10:11</sub>

~*~

What happens when you take a brony musician and mix him with Dream Theater, Ayreon, and a bit of Avantasia, with a side touch of Trent Reznor mixing?

You get this album:

HeyLasFas's third album (Or fourth, I cannot be sure), 'Destiny: A Tale of Unicorn Wings'.

What else can I say?It's brony stylized music with a concrete storyline that is something Ajren Lucassen, creator and visionary of Ayreon, would plan for his own albums, combined with the vocal style of Dream Theater's James LeBrie, the mix techniques of Dream Theater meeting power metal Avantasia, all with a hint of NIN's Trent Reznor's production style.

...Minus all the Angsty ness of course.

Now, before I get to the bulk of music, let's talk about the one man who leads the band himself, K. Icarus Gray.

From Seattle, WA, He's your experimental progressive rock musician, with some smarts on sound design and audio engineering.

Already, I'm impressed with this guy!He has all the skills of that of Reznor .Again, minus all the angsty ness.

His project 'HeyLasFas!", has already had several concept releases in the past, the most known being 'Nightfall', a concept album describing the broken down relationship between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna during their reign and the downfall of Luna into Nightmare Moon.

I gave 'Nightfall' a listen back after I listened to 'Destiny', and I was amazed and in love, it felt as if I was hearing Gray's own version of Dream Theater's magnum opus 'Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory".

In fact, it felt as if I was listening to that album, I was that blown away.

As for Destiny, I was just as impressed as well, again feeling as if I was listening to Dream Theater's 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence' with a mix of 'Octavarium'.

The album story deals with something I've never seen in the fan base, or ever glanced upon:

It deals with the events in between Season Three and Four: Twilight's now a Princess, but feels as if she's lost herself, fearful of making mistakes and not being with her friends anymore.

And ticking at two hours of music, you are going to be impressed as to what happens.

The album starts off with a grand, ambient like opening called 'Starborne', with  mysterious lyrics about the night sky, which will serve as a connection to a later event.

A prologue if you will.

From there, you are thrust into sixteen tracks expanding on this storyline, and I promise you this, there is so much that occurs that you will be left jaw-dropped.

I would love to go into the usual details track by track, I really would.

But that would spoil every aspect of the album, I am dead serious.

All I can say is that each album has a distinctive sound and can have a huge mix of mood whiplash, being from a melancholic piece to a dark breakdown unlike nothing you were to expect.

The lyrics  fits the style of the song, Example can be with 'Faulted', a melancholic song about Twilight still trying to understand her new duty, while dealing with the pressures of being a Princess and having to deal with the criticisms of what I can assume is from Canterlot citizens.

The mood of the song is a rather slow, somber tone of fear of making a mistake, while having to feel others see as that mistake.

In a way, it feels as if Gray was listening to Dream Theater's 'The Count of Tuscany' while writing this, and if he did (or to any Dream Theater song), then I can see the similarities.

Again, the experimentation on this album is just breath taking, There isn't just Dream Theater and Ayreon influence, but there's Nine Inch Nails experimentation, and in a way (more for me though due to all the metal music I listen to), King Diamond vocals.

Yes, King Diamond vocals.

...What is wrong with me.

ANYWAY, The album in a way can be split into two pieces:

The first five song can be considered the more relaxing parts of the album, keeping to Twilight's emotional state, as well as her tension with Celestia, but it is around the sixth track 'Something Missing', that the album kicks it into high gear, going NIN meets DT and lets it all out for eleven minutes.

Around 'Faultless' is where the album really lets it go, becoming more intense, reaching Porcupine Tree levels of experimentation and music style. And I am dead serious when I say the Porcupine Tree experimentation goes up to eleven as the album goes from this track onward.

Again, I want to go and tell you every detail and description of the album, but that would be spoiling every aspect of the album, both the music and the lyrics.

It's one of those album you must listen to full on through.

Basically, is 'Nightfall' is HeyLasFas!'s own version of Metropolis Part II, then 'Destiny' is his version of Porcupine Tree's 'Fear of a Blank Planet' meeting Nine Inch Nail's 'Downward Spiral'.In a way at least.

Look..what I am getting at is this album is truly a marvel, the music is fantastic, the vocals are impressive, the lyrics and concept, just the lyrics and concept are superb and solid. It all holds up into something beautiful, majestic, and truly breath taking.

Again, I apologize for not going into detail on the album, but going into detail and detail on the song's content and lyrics would just spoil everything on this piece.

For those interested, I recommend taking a listen to 'Like You', 'Semantics', 'Destiny', and 'Empty' to capture your attention.

It's also safe to say the Brony fandom has themselves a Dream Theater-Nine Inch Nails expy right here.

And he's doing a fantastic job with his music.

Rate: 10/10