2005-10-24
What struck me most about this young band, is that its completely impossible to put a label on their music, one moment its power metal, another its death metal, than with more gothic overtones, as I said, impossible.
The band, who's this is their third album since 1999, creates a melodic, fast metal album, mostly sounding like keyboard rich power metal, but with plenty of death metal moments, in the vocals as well as in some of the guitar riffs.
As can be judged by their name, they have an affinity with Queensryche, also evident in the concept feel of the album, almost every track is followed by a kind of an intro, bringing to mind Queensryche's best album from whom the band takes its name.
First off, the album's sound is fantastic, it really sounds great, a sound like this would sit in well with almost any big release put out today, it opens with the powerful and fast Owner Of Secrets, keyboard heavy, sounding a bit like Finish power metal in the vein of Sonata Arctica, that is, until the vocals turn to death metal growls that sit in with the more melodic ones.
One minus is with the melodic vocals, they are capable enough, but at certain points sound a bit out of tune, they need some tweaking with.
Search For Serenity couldn’t open with a more surprising line, a blast beat! It sounds like a black metal album before turning into the band's more recognizable power metallic styling.
A song like Guidance again uses the growled-clean vocals trick, doesn’t come off to bad either, but I'm not sure if all this diversity of good for the band.
A few things I would do in their next release, first, get a better cover for the album, this one looks too crowded and unclear, second, work on the melodic vocals a bit, and third, make a more clearly defined music, apart form that, they have talent to spare, excellent sound and they come off professional enough.
Alon Miasnikov
