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Melodic and aggressive is the new disc from
Space Odyssey
“The Astral Episode.” This is keyboardist Richard Andersson’s
project and the second release. Over his expansive recording career
he has brushed elbows with Henrik Flyman (Royal Hunt), Goran Edman
(Yngwie Malmsteen), Roine Stolt (Transatlantic) and also was touring
and session musician with Symphony X. Andersson can create quite an
atmosphere on this disc and, with the help of the rest of the band,
they can get quite a beat going. You can call it what you want, but
it’s somewhere near a combination of power and progressive metals.
The music is technical in the progressive manner. It should be a surprise
to no one that the keyboards are outstanding. The guitar solos trade
off with the keys in a superb manor, like many bands with similar
traits do. There are power metal style vocals that are pretty much
what you would expect. But when he tries, he shows that he can sing
with best of them. There is quite a contrast in the music with the
mellow atmospheric parts compared to the up-tempo, inferno blazing,
leads and solos. The more aggressive stuff appealed to me more, but
some of the melodic choruses were nice. Overall they are the most
consistent parts mostly because how the music is layered. The guitars
are a little raw sometimes, nothing to noticeable. I wouldn’t
say that any particular song was outstanding, but there isn’t
a bad song on this disc. Now whether you would like this or not would
depend on your appreciation of power metal as well as progressive.
Their selection of notes might not be perfect all the time, but it
is often enough that people into Hammerfall, Royal Hunt, Symphony
X, Edguy, Stratovarius and Dream Theater should turn their eyes to
this disc…they may find something they like. Rating: 77 |
