Limb Music has found itself another emerging star in Norway's Illusion Suite, a power/progressive metal hybrid which summons up the finer elements of Dream Theater, Angra, Pagan's Mind and Shadow Gallery while maintaining a harder edge of harder Swedish power metal (Tad Morose, Morgana LeFay) and a vocalist whose charisma almost rivals Helloween's Andi Deris. Final Hour is an extremely well rounded album which is both heavy and melodic, glorious and skirting the edge of the dark simultaneously.Although it doesn't hurt that the band is almost flawless in their ability to create good, meaty riffs and epic, atmospheric verses, vocalist Bill Makatowicz takes the album a step further. His silklike but varied range injects life and character into each composition, there is not a stinker in this entire bunch. For the harder side, tracks like "Scarlet Skies" and "The Adventures of Arcan" rock forth a fury of immense riffs, tasteful synth accompaniment and the sheer wonder you always feel when you're a fan of these styles. For a dash of the band's more theatrical, graceful writing there are tracks like "Pandora's Box" and "Once We Were Here" are both extremely memorable and powerful. Even the balladic moments of "A Moment to Remember" lapse into fine progressive metal with glistening vocals.
Final Hour is a big production with a quality mix that will compare favorably to many works in this genre. The musicians are great but reserved, performing only to what the track needs, with slight stretches of lead work tastefully summoned at the appropriate moments. It's a really good album that should impress fans of earlier Dream Theater, the past few Helloween albums, and most of what you'd find in between those two poles. If you're not into the big, sappy and smooth power metal vocals and the prog metal genre in general, I doubt Illusion Suite will change your mind. Otherwise, the album is an impressive debut for what it is.
Verdict: Win [8.5/10]
http://www.myspace.com/illusionsuite
No comments:
Post a Comment