Edgend is a promising progressive metal act from Israel, with a style that recalls a lo-fi Pagan's Mind or some of the earlier albums from Italy's Eldritch. A New Identity is their first full-length foray, and it's packed with well enough written songs that fans of the genre should catch on immediately.The album is sandwiched within a pair of bombastic, operatic symphony pieces with some choral vocals and rousing synthesizer melodies. While cheesy, they display the compositional talent of the band, and would be well suited for something like a Final Fantasy game. And the meat within is well worth clamping your jaws for a healthy bite. "Internal Fire" erupts in dense lines of powerful guitars with the synths placed as atmospheric touches. As the verse rhythm begins, it becomes thrashy and catchy and the synths transform into flurries of melodic piano. Rami Salmon (Stella Maris) is on vocal duties, and his voice is soothing and has a nice bite when he's performing his middle register. "My Oath" opens with some synth scales jamming over an interesting rhythm, and I enjoy how they the synths are adding multiple levels to each track. Often in such a band, the guitars can get lost, but Sharon Halachmi re-assures you with an unending slew of heavy, grooving rhythms and breaks into scales and fills that suit the song.
Almost the entire album is good, but if I had to choose favorites I'd run with "Acts of Disgrace" and "Winds from the Abyss", which both feature a more power metallic edge to them, and the latter has more of the bands pompous synth orchestration at the intro. A New Identity isn't some brazen, overproduced prog/power album, but it's very well balanced, and will easily sink its hooks into you if you're a fan of this style. Not as jammy as something like Dream Theater, but they do often break into long instrumental sections with a similar appeal. This is an album of depth and you will find more through multiple listens. Recommended!
Verdict: Win [8/10]
http://www.myspace.com/edgendband
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