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This is the second
album from this Swedish ProgMetal band. The vocals on their first CD
“Extension Of The Wish” were done by Lawrence Mackrory (ex-Darkane), who
was called in as a session vocalist. He did a fine job, but they still
needed a singer as a full member of the band. And now they have found
David Fremberg. And what a singer he is. He has a beautiful voice, with
a special sound that I only heard before in Mac’s (Threshold) voice. So
he’s certainly a big improvement for the band.
On guitar, there’s
Johan Reinholdz, who has some other projects going on. He also has a
heavy/trash/death metal band that’s called NonExist and he’s also
writing music for his electronic project Kontinuum. He’s also a member
of Opus Atlantica, a project with amongst others Jonas Reingold and
Jaime Salazar. But with Andromeda, he plays and writes progmetal. He’s
playing some very good, fast, strong solos and certainly matches John
Petrucci in speed, ingenuity and good solo work. Another very strong
ingredient of the band is keyboard player Martin Hedin, who fights a lot
of duels with the guitar of Johan. And not only his solos and speed and
virtuosity are of a higher level, but he also has a feeling for fresh,
good and fitting keyboard sounds. Just listen to the piece of classical
piano in “One In My Head”.
The drums are played by
Thomas Lejon, whom we already know as a member of A.C.T. He already has
given proof of his skills in that band and the same can be said for what
he’s doing with Andromeda.
The style of the band
lies somewhere between progmetal and progressive rock. I can almost call
them a heavy Arena or a more progressive Dream Theater. Their music is
full of breaks and changes, with a lot of duels between guitar and
keyboards, and above all the splendid performance of singer David.
Just listen to “Two Is
One”, a track of 10 minutes that starts as a ballad but grows heavier
and goes to a progressive final. “Parasite” and “One In My Head” could
come straight from the newest Pain Of Salvation album. The instrumental
“Morphing Into Nothing” has some Dream Theater influences. “Castaway” is
a quiet track with some beautiful lead and backing vocals, supported by
some amazing piano-playing and an acoustic guitar.
If you like Pain Of
Salvation, Threshold and Dream Theater than this is certainly your cup
of tea. It’s a bit heavy for the genuine progressive rock fans, but I
think there are enough progressive ingredients to even satisfy them.
Listening to the samples on
www.andromedaonline.com can help you make your decision.
The artwork of the
album is once more a masterpiece by Mattias Norén.
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