Modern Drummer Magazine March 1997 Review

He appeared in the March 1997 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, which said, in part, "he displays blistering technique and innovative musical approach".

Drum Magazine Review

He also appeared in Drum! magazine, which had the following to say about Alex and Power of Omens; "They are all topnotch players who have painstakingly orchestrated their complex music to include endless flashes of pyrotechnic festoons and frills. Alex has his act together, with a booming drum sound, polished technique and a reliable groove that smoothly gets around tricky tempo changes and time signatures. Alex is hot stuff!"

Sacred Metal-German Internet Magazine"English Translation"

Power Of Omens: Eyes Of The Oracle S U P E R H U M A N, Part II !! What a pity! I threw out all of my superlatives in the Shadow Gallery-Review and suddenly there came a young, unknown Newcomerband, which turns my musical view of life upside down! To say it clearly in the beginning: Power Of Omens is the best Progressive-Band on this planet at the moment! What I never thought to happen has happened: even before the official release-date of the (nearly) perfect "Tyranny"-Album from Shadow Gallery comes this four-piece-band of magicians and brings out the best album of the last few years! (Well, I'm not quite sure if it's the best album of all-time...). I believe that these guys never saw the light of day for at least 5 years to write, practice for and release such a milestone like "Eyes Of The Oracle"! Both bands, SG and PoO, can't be compared musically in detail, because SG are much more straight than PoO. BUT: Believe me, you'll have to sit/stand/kneel with a 72minute-lasting lockjaw (and maybe with other changes of your body...) in front of your speakers, unable to believe what happens here, and you'll have to press in trance the "Repeat"-Button of your CD-Player to get another ride with PoO to another time and another space! And how this journey starts! The short intro "Inner Voice" passes over to the first "big bang" which is called "Alone I Stand". This song simply helps to forget the last three Dream Theater, the last ?? (fill in for yourself...) Queensryche and the last three Fates Warning (uh, writing this hurts so much...)-releases. As well does "A Word On A Line" , which lasts over 9 minutes and contains parts that I've never heard before in such a brilliance!! What the f... did this band do with me?? Let's quickly jump to the undoubtedly highlight of "Eyes...": what happens in song number eight, "TEST OF WILLS" (MARK THIS TITLE!!) , is total insanity. 19:55 minutes of pure progressive madness, with a chorus that you'll never forget!! If I would study music I would write my doctorial thesis about this song and it's thought provoking lyrics!! Ah, all fans of Fates Warning, Spock's Beard, Shadow Gallery, Dream Theater, Rush, Queensryche, Psychotic Waltz, Reading Zero, Death, Mystic Force and every other great band: please listen only once to this song and your life will be never the same!! Your favorite bands won't ever write such a song again. Should I be more precise? Until the magic moment, when I heard "Eyes..." for the first time, I thought that Dream Theater's debut "When Dream And Day Unite", Queensryche's "The Warning", Fates Warning's "Awaken The Guardian" and Psychotic Waltz's "A Social Grace" is the Nonplusultra in the Progressive-/MUSIC-genre but "Test Of Wills" singly and easily tops these milestones!! The instrumental part ("The Struggle Within") contains maybe the best minutes of music I've ever heard! You thought that DT's "Metropolis, Part I" is progressive? Hah, listen to "Part II", be quiet, kneel down and praise Power Of Omens!!! When the spanish guitars start to play I could get totally crazy!! After recovering from this 20minute "eargasm" the following instrumental "Tears Of The Wind" takes your most inner feelings with it's wonderful drums and an acoustic guitar that is played with so much emotion you could start to cry! Hey, people, I didn't exaggerate, when I quote the second time in my "review career": THIS BAND COULDN'T BE FROM THIS WORLD!! AMEN!! (c), 1998, Michael Kohsiek

Psycho Magazine-Italy 1998"English Translation"

THE POWER OF THE MIND
PROG METAL HAS BEEN THOUGHT OF, AS A GENRE THAT HAS DECLINED; BUT IN IT'S RESURGENCE COMES A GROUP THAT BRINGS TO THE HUNDRETH POWER, THE ASPECT OF TECHNICALITY, COMPLEXITY AND POSITIVELY INTRIGUE TO THIS GENRE. THAT WHICH IS POWER OF OMENS IS AN EXPERIMENT OF COURAGE FOR A TOTAL MUSICAL CONCESION. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF PROG METAL CONTINUES. COMING FROM SAN ANTONIO; POWER OF OMENS REPRESENTS THE LAST AMERICAN GENERATION OF THIS SCENE, RESURRECTING THE ACCLAIM BY BANDS SUCH AS DREAM THEATER, FATES WARNING AND QUEENSRYCHE. THESE 5 TEXANS ARE LEGITIMATE SONS OF THIS FORMATION. THEY HAVE REVEALED A CHARACTER MUCH MORE EXCITING THAN ANY OTHER BANDS THAT ARE ALSO RUNNING FOR THE THRONE (scepter) OF THIS "EMERGING NEW REALITY" AND THIS THANKS TO A TECHNIQUE TRULY IMPRESSIVE, (for example) "TEST OF WILLS" ; IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE WHY THE CRITICS HAVE CONSAGRADED THEM AS SUPERBLY GIFTED MUSICIANS. THE DEBUT CD "EYES OF THE ORACLE" IS NOT SCARED TO BE CELEBRATED. IT'S REQUIRED BY THE LISTENER; A TOTAL IMMERSION INTO THIS RICH TEXTURAL COMPOSITION, AND FOR COMPENSATION; A TOTAL MUSICAL EXPERIENCE IN WHICH YOU'LL RE -DISCOVER ALSO THE TASTE FOR "JAM SESSION". A THING WHICH IN PART PLACES POWER OF OMENS CLOSE TO THE NEW TREND SET BY "LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT", "BLACK LIGHT SYNDROME" AND RECENTLY "EXPLORER'S CLUB". PSYCHO MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1998 ITALY

Knights of the Round-Featured Artist Webpage

Power of Omens is truly a marvel in this day and age of prog/power metal - combining all of the best qualities of established acts like Queensryche, Watchtower, Veni Domine and Fates Warning. In fact, this is one of the landmark albums of our age, pushing the boundaries of progmetal in to a new realm. Power Of Omens manage to combine technical instrumentation and emotional vocal arrangements into a musical masterpiece of epic proportions. Fans of Queensryche will surely love the vocalist, Chris Salinas, who genuinely gives Geoff Tate a run for his millions. Flurries of countless riffs change the emotions of each track. Intelligent poetic lyrics for your reading pleasure, and of course some of the best drumming this side of Mike Portnoy. Even the choruses are memorable....we can't get the chorus for "Word On A Line" out of our heads!! K8006 Power Of Omens - Eyes Of The Oracle

Metal Faith-Internet Magazine

Power Of Omens-Eyes Of The Oracle fans of progressive metal, brace yourself. this is one of the most striking cd's i've heard in years. this band hails from San Antonio and they will surely make an impression in prog. circles everywhere. they are stylistically in the neighborhood of their stated influences, dream theater, fates warning and queensryche. this disc is not for the short attention span or for background music. ambitious in length and scope, you will likely be amazed at least, if not completely absorbed. for starters, Chris Salinas is the single most reminiscent vocalist to geoff tate i have heard. and lots have tried.rich, powerful vocals that give me goosebumps like when i first heard" Queen Of T he Reich" Drummer Alex Arellano is topped by no drummer today. his performance on here will drop your jaw. he reminds me of fellow Texans R ick Colaluca of Watchtower and Bobby Jarzombeks Spastic Ink work. very busy. Guitarist David Gallegos sequences some good keyboard playing as well as engineering the disc, doing the cover art, and throwing in some fine flamenco work. bassist Matt W illiamson rounds things out nicely with his six string. songs tend to be long and involved, but still accessible thanks mostly to Salinas and the strong writing. if you're into epic prog., this is essential.

No Exit-Internet Magazine

Power Of Omens is a band made up of some of the most talented musicians I've ever heard come out of the US! There is actually too much to say about this band that I may actually try to keep this review short and to the point. Made up of four guys who attribute most of their influences to Queensryche, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Shadow Gallery, Fates Warning and Rush. You can really hear all of those influences in the music. Vocally Chris Salinas is almost a dead ringer for Geoff Tate and at times John Arch. The fabulous drumming of Alex Arellano really gives Portnoy and Zonder a run for their money. In fact Alex even took lessons from Mark Zonder. Add to all this a technical style that rivals Dream Theater and Rush and add a nice epic feel to it and you have Power Of Omens. Their debut disk, Eyes of The Oracle, is a technical masterpiece and listening to it I can't help but think that "if only Queensryche went this way instead of the other, the music world could have been a much different place". I say Queensryche because upon first hearing this band that is who you will immediately compare them to, but after a few listens the name Queensryche becomes a distant memory. These guys are 100% more technical than Queensryche is these days, you will not find any straight forward commercial metal here. The first time though the disk I loved it, the second time through I thought it was almost too technical, then I had to really listen to it to appreciate all the little aspects of it that make Power of Omens such a great talented band. I think this is enough said, if you don't get the picture now, just listen to the song below and then go buy this disk if you are a fan of progressive metal.

Perpetual Motion-Internet BBS

This detailed review was posted on the Perpetual Motion message board by Larry D, who kindly gave us permission to include it here (thanks again, Larry!).
POWER OF OMENS / Eyes of the Oracle -
You�re either going to love this disc, or hate this disc, but make no mistake, you will respect and admire it. It is not a disc that everyone will take to, as it is highly technical in nature. It contains a maze of complex song structures, tempo change upon tempo change, and I don�t think there was one time that I found myself tapping my foot or beating on something to follow along with the songs. I defy anyone to try to keep up with this music. If you are going to play technical music, then I say, play it right, and like no one else. This band certainly believes in that theory, and practices it to the end as they do it superbly, and I can�t think of another band that this one sounds like or emulates. They are in a class by themselves, which is admirable on one hand, and yet sad on the other hand knowing that most of the music population won�t even go near a disc like this because of the style and approach. This one is for admirers of technical brilliance.
The STYLE -
As stated, it�s a technical maze. Take a 72 minute disc, 4 super talented musicians, write songs that range from 5:00 to 20:00, make each one more complex than the other, and you have Power of Omens. Throw in a singer in a world of his own, and you have a winner, or at least a winner if you like this kind of music. I�ll have to admit right out, that the disc is way out of my league, but I still can�t help but admire the way that these guys approach it, and of course, I can�t help but listen to the singer over and over again. This alone does not make a disc continously listenable for me however, and I imagine that this disc will remain in my collection as a showpiece rather than a main player. If someone ever wants to hear what technical prog metal sounds like, I�ll be whipping this out immediately.
The BAND -
This is where this band will get the most praise from me, because their talent is beyond just good. These are serious musicians, and I guess the difference between guys playing music, and guys creating music. I don�t expect every musician in the world to write music like this, but it�s inspiring to know that somewhere out there, someone takes pride in writing music of this nature and not being afraid to spread it. The band consists of singer, guitar, bass and drums with the guitarist being billed as playing all �electronics� which I gather are the keyboards and atmospheric sounds along the way. How can I pick out any stand outs when a band plays music like this ? Each one of these guys has to be ultra-talented to pull off what they do, and I wonder how musicians find one another and put together a band like this. However, in the spirit of being bias, I have to say that the aside from the vocalist, which is really the only part of the music that interests me, the drummer is something to behold as well. Never staying still, and constantly playing a thousand beats at once, this guy reminds me somewhat of the style that Mark Zonder has; effortlessly playing complex beats, but sounding like he has been doing it all of his life. This guy is all over the kit, throwing in cymbals, high hats and everything else on his kit at strange spots in the music. I�m not into drummers as a rule, but credit has to be given to this guy. Any drummers out there that listen to music to hear their favorite instrument being played should get this disc to hear this guy play. The guitarist and bassist are superbly matched, each playing off the other and it amazes me how bass players keep up with guitarists in a normal band, but how they do it in a technical band is just mind boggling. These guys don�t disappoint in the ability dept, that is for certain.
The VOCALS -
This is the shining part of the disc for me. There is a small list that contains singers that sound uncannily like Geoff Tate. For whatever reason, it�s strange that anyone who has ever said that someone sounds like Tate, only had tones and styles like he did, but very few actually rivalled what he can do with his voice. Enter, Chris Salinas. If there was anyone on the planet who actually sounded like Tate, this is it. He takes it one step further and actually uses his voice the same way as Tate, making you think that this WAS Tate singing. Why the hell couldn�t I have a voice like this ? And what does it take to get one ? I�m buying. In fairness to Salinas, he is up against one of the best in the history of the business, and it would be unfair for me to say that he is either �better� or �not as good� as Tate, so let�s say that if you like Geoff Tate, you will like Chris Salinas. You be the judge if Salinas is playing real ball or not; take it from me, he is. There are people out there that just hate it when singers get compared to Tate or Alder, so maybe the proof should be left in the pie, and I recommend you check him out before shrugging off my comments. For the record, Salinas only competition IS Tate, so take it from there .......
The PRODUCTION -
Overall, this is a very good recording, but my complaint would be in the bass dept, where the heaviness is lacking a bit. You can hear what the bass player is playing, but you can�t feel what he is doing. I realize that this type of music doesn�t call for much poundage, but people who listen to metal want to know if a disc is heavy or not, and I can say that this is not a heavy disc, not only due to the nature of the music, but the recording as well. The drums stand out, although again, I�d like to hear more punch in the bottom end, but you really want to hear this guy play, and once you do, you forget that he isn�t shaking your walls with his kit. Even in the guitar dept, the crunch is missing, and at this point, I�m feeling that this is intentional. You can hear every instrument very clearly, and I'm sure was the intention of the engineer. This music screams out more to be studied than felt. The vocals are clean, crisp, and you can hear just about every word that Salinas is singing. Had the vocals been done any different, there would be a big injustice out there being done to this band. This is not a singer that you put back in the mix.
The COMMENTS -
Now that I�ve got the praise out of the way, and there is no way you can�t praise the talent of this band, I want to be realistic as it pertains to my personal taste and say that this disc is way out of my league. It is too technical and complex to keep my attention, and it�s pretty much void of any melodies that you can grab onto and bang on something in unison. At least it�s easy to figure out whether or not you�d like a disc like this, because you either like technical music or you don�t. I do know some people that are digging this disc because of the singer, and I have to say that is the only reason I would keep it on for an extended period of time. Other than that, if you want to hear some fabulous musicians playing some super complex music, then grab it. If you�re looking to tap your feet, bang a table, or grab onto a melody that you can follow for a few minutes, then forget it because it�s not happening. Overall, you can�t fault superb talent like this band has, but I can imagine the impact that this band would have on the metal world if they decided to write some catchy, or heavier material with easier melody lines, but then again I�m back to praising then for sticking with their beliefs. Like I said, you love the music or hate it, but you have to admire it.
Larry D.