THE LAST SUNRISE

XANADU were a five piece band out of Poland, forming in 2008 and releasing two studio albums('11 & '14) before calling it a day. With a name like XANADU I figured I might hear a RUSH vibe, but no. This is in fact about as close to being a copy of RIVERSIDE circa their first two albums that I have heard. The singer sounds just like Duda in tone and delivery, and of course he has the same Polish accent on those English lyrics. The music is more Prog Metal than Heavy Prog in my opinion, and full of atmosphere created by the two guest keyboardists.

Album number two sounds so much different with a new singer coming on board, and the metallic sound is scaled way back making that album sound like a Heavy Prog album. No guests on that one, as one of the two lead guitarists will add keys for the atmosphere. So while I think this debut is the better album of the two, it's also the least original sounding of the two. And I know fans who have issues with band's cloning their heroes, so keep that in mind. But having said that, this in my opinion is as good or better than RIVERSIDE's first three records. A very talented band.

This record is over 45 minutes long with seven tracks. So much atmosphere. Fairly dark as well. A very uniform sounding recording. I really like when the singer gets a little extreme like Duda used to once in a while. This is heard to end the opener. It's hard to pick a top three or so because it's such a consistent album. The elephant in the room of course is how much this sounds like RIVERSIDE. Still, there's no way I can go lower than 4 stars, but at the same time the lack of originality keeps me from rating this higher.

Well worth checking out if you're a huge RIVERSIDE fan, or just like heavy, atmospheric music. A very good record.

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