BEETHOVEN'S LAST NIGHT

A symphonic metal-opera album! This is a concept album with a fictional, yet interesting, story of Bethoveen. The music is heavy, and the songs are extremely short. All the short songs connect together and flow really well one from the other. There are many musicians and singers for each character in the story.

The song starts excellently with the main heavy riff. While I feel the first songs are the best, the rest of the material is quite strong too, and it takes a few listens to realize there is beauty and good compositions in this album. The melodies are strong, the guitar riffing is heavy, yet it fits with the opera-like feel of the album. The keyboards may sound a bit 'dream Theater' like in moments, but it is more classical in style. The singers are all very good (especially the Devil and Bethoveen), and the bass+drum rhythm part of the group gets the job done while it is nothing spectacular.

I recommend this album for fans of concept albums. While the musicianship and songwriting cannot be compared with the great progressive rock bands, it is still good enough to hold your interesting. The music style is very interesting : a fusion of Heavy Metal with Album Rock.

My score : C+