Nemesis is a Hungarian progmetal band that was formed in the summer of 1997. Since the release of their first self-titled album in 1998, they have been one of Hungary’s headliners. Their second album “Abraxas” appeared in 1999. The original Nemesis formation gave their last concert on December 16, 2000. The current line-up was formed in February 2001. That spring, they entered the studio to record “Eden?”. In contrast to its predecessors, this album was recorded in English, because it’s the band’s aim to make their music known to as many people as possible all over the world and not just “East of Eden”.

It’s a difficult time for progmetal bands. How do you get noticed amongst the many excellent releases of good, new and older bands? You must either equal or improve the others, because less isn’t satisfactory or you must have an original sound. And I have to say, they succeed on both terms. They play a style that you can file under progmetal but lucky for us they emphasize on the progressive side. They sound like Dream Theater from the “Images And Words” period, but a little less complex, with some Fates Warning influences. The originality in their sound lies in their Hungarian roots. There is an ‘Eastern’ feeling in their melody lines, which gives most of their songs a special touch. The vocals aren’t superb, but better than the average progmetal singers. His English has an accent but it’s not annoying, almost negligible. The lyrics are also fairly good, except for the odd mistake against the English grammar.
They are certainly very technically skilled, the guitar and keyboard solos are very speedy and from a high quality. The sequence of the notes isn’t always evident, can I call it the Hungarian influence again? The bass and the drums are also very impressive 

A pity, they use a bit too often an “Enter Sandman” Metallica sound for the rhythm guitars. My favourites are “Four Mirrors” with some really high class solos from the guitars and keyboards and some brilliant melody lines and “Faith”, an instrumental quiet song that could have been on a Satriani or Vai album. Their Hungarian influence is in their advantage but they exaggerate in the last song, which is a Hungarian Folksong, sung in their language, that shouldn’t have been on this CD.

A new progmetal name to remember. I hope they get noticed amongst all the other Dream Theater, Symphony X and other big shots in the shops.
The album has some very fine artwork done by Gyula Havancsák. (www.skaelede.hu/hjules )