OPUS

This album is fine. The music on it is skillfully played, and the compositions show a lot of thought and care went into it. However, this also hits my ear as an unashamed knock off of Haken's Visions. I like Visions. It's a good album. But I don't need to hear the same record from a different band. A lot of the sounds on this record strike me as slightly out of date and behind the times, and the rabid, rave reviews this album has received baffle me. It's not a bad album, but it's an album I've heard before. Nospun really aren't bringing anything new to the table.

A new group of musicians who show extraordinary technicality, who manage to merge the speed, dexterity, sensuality and aggressiveness of a meta-lprog group, yes it's possible! The group that makes you think of HAKEN, TOOL, SYMPHONY X, ETERNITY X, DREAM THEATER of course and RUSH for the prog metal framework; yes you will find all that and much more in this 'Opus' from nowhere.

For once I won't give you the idea of breaking down the titles one by one, no, the album lasting an hour and ten minutes I swallowed it in one go; no I won't tell you if one or the other piece has that little extra, just that you have a few landmark islands, a few masterpieces that make you take off and go very far, but that each title reinforces the lasting impression of having in the hands, or in the hard drive, a major prog metal album of the year 2023, nothing more. Only one piece of advice, listen to it, listen to it and capsize on this.... opus which ultimately bears its name aptly. It's been a long time since a group took me this far.