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Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter CD (album) cover

THE 1ST CHAPTER

Circus Maximus

 

Progressive Metal

3.82 | 216 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars An excellent chapter to embark the band's musical career .!

If I judge this album by its cover, I might have thought that this is an album by a band similar to ARENA. Why? It's because of the cover artwork which reminds me to the cover artwork of ARENA "The Visitor" album. But .. I knew this album after I'm satisfied with the band's second album "Isolate" which sounds excellent, musically, to my ears. Well, as I understand from Circus Maximus "Isolate" album I can then predict the kind of music presented by this band. The album has good "drive" and "enthusiasm" for the music that the band has made. The opening track "Sin" (5:53) is definitely an excellent track with great combination of riffs, melodic singing as well as tempo changes. The guitar solo in the middle of the track is cool. The next track "Alive" (5:38) brings the music in similar vein with its opening track but in slower (a bit) tempo. The transition pieces presented by keyboard work is quite interesting.

"Glory of the Empire" (10:27) gives a very nice break with an acoustic guitar work accompanied by bass guitar and keyboard. The long introduction completely ignores the perception that this is a progressive metal band because the first 2 minutes is like any symphonic prog music. But after minute 2 the music moves in crescendo and vocal enters the music followed beautifully with piano work. Now the music is like a combination of prog metal and symphonic music. It's a nice composition and I like the vocal quality. "Biosfear" (5:22) is completely a prog metal tune with fast tempo and pulsating keyboard work as well as guitar riffs and melody. The style of the music changes dramatically from one segment to another which makes this album is "prog" in nature. It's an excellent instrumental track.

"Silence from Angels Above" (4:07) starts beautifully with nice acoustic guitar fills which later accompanies vocal line in low register notes. It's quite odd actually because until previous track te vocal line was performed in high register notes. But this album has powerful melody and chorus line which is nice to enjoy. There is some work of mellotron-like sound. "Why Am I Here" (6:05) brings the music back into its uplifting mode with its progressive metal style.

The title track "The 1st Chapter" (19:08) offers a music in prog metal vein with many changes in style and tempo at the opening part followed with music in symphonic style. The music flows wonderfully and the vocal line enters only after minute 4 of the song. The combined work of guitar riffs, pulsating keyboard work, dazzling drums and powerful vocal line has made this song attractive, especially for those who like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Kamelot, etc. The piano solo in the middle of the track is nice, influenced by classical music. It's an excellent track to conclude the album. My version has additional track "Imperial Destruction" (6:30) (exclusive bonus track for Europe).

Overall, it's a truly excellent progressive metal album with tight composition and heavily influenced by classical music. Much of the arrangement reminds me to the prog met bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X. Highly recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Gatot | 4/5 |

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