A SLEEPER'S AWAKENING

To tell you the truth, I only approached this album because the concept about the seven deadly sins always was of extrime interest to me. But in the end I was surprised to notice that the lyrics and the concept itself only were secondary, in the end. Why? Because of the music! Now, don't get me wrong, I love concept albums and nice lyrics, but the music on these 2 cd is simply...overwhelming!!! First of all: the spoken parts (yes, there are!) are really nice, not only because of the perfect (for me, but I'm not mother tongue...) english accent, but also for the different caracters you get to hear. Second: melodies are really great, if not genius. Third: you get to hear an array of fun-tastic singers!!! Ok, but the music? The music offers a variety of gendres to listen to: from classic arpeggios dominated à-la-genesis kind of stuff (with lots of flute) to classic had rock, say Uriah Heep stile. In between you can hear many other influences, modern prog-metal arrangements, even a death metal vocal part! That's what prog is really about for me: merging influences. I must stress that probably this opus won't apeal to much synphonic prog addicts, because besides very nice symphonic passages you will get metal parts as well, hence need a really open mind to listen to this. If you do, you won't be disappointed: an intense experience. Well done, Mattis!!