Reviews
2003-01-18
Who would have believed that Symphony X would release an album so soon after "The Odyssey"! , At least that was my 1
st thought and then I checked the name on the cover. Never the less Time Requiem are an excellent, impressive band and if they'd released this album 5 years ago it would have stand in line with albums such as "Divine winds of tragedy" by Symphony X and "Fear" by Royal Hunt. Time Requiem is one of the best neo-classic progressive metal albums I got to hear lately but that is not such a big surprise bearing in mind that the whole project is the brain child of Richard Andersson (Majestic, Space Odyssey) - one of the best shred-keyboardists in the world (in case you don’t know what a shred keyboardist is its something like a terminal Parkinson diseased patient with an attitude against keyboards). He also recruited Magnus Nord (Majestic, Alive) on guitar, Peter Wildoer on drums (Majestic, Silver Seraph, Darkane), Apollo Papathanasio (toured with Majestic & Medusa) and Dick Lצvgren that used to be Armageddon bassist and toured with In Flames on 2000.
In addition to the impressive line-up "Time Requiem" has been produced beautifully. The balance is leveled to perfection, the drums get that full progressive sound instead of that flat hollowed blackish sound you get in those cheap new progressive productions, the keyboards stand out beautifully and Papathanasio never sounded better.
There aren't many debut albums at this level and I guess it is due to two reasons:
1
st - Andersson has worked with most of the band at prior projects and knows how to get the best out of them.
2
nd - The album was produced at Jonas Reingold studios (Flower Kings & Karmakanic Bass player) who's a veteran in the prog World and a talented composer for himself.
The CD has 9 tracks (Except the Japanese version that includes "losers shade of hell" which is an old Majestic bonus track that appeared on the European version of abstract symphony). Definitely one of the more produced and worked on neo-progressive projects that I've heard lately. And except "Watching the tower of skies" and "Milagros Charm" that have been viciously …hmm… how shell I put it "influenced" by Symphony X and Royal Hunt the rest of the album is just marvelous.
Tal Galfsky
