ULYSSES: NERONIA

90's German Neo Prog act from Wiesbaden, one of the many bands to feature the name Ulysses, eventually dropping it off for legal reasons in the following years.The line-up consisted of singer Gerard Hynes, guitarist Mirko Rudnik, keyboardist Thomas Dhiel, bassist Ender Kilic and drummer Robert Zoom, while on their debut ''Neonia'' from 1993 (on Pyramusic) Tracy Hitchings and Arena's first bassist Cliff Orsi appear in two tracks.

''Neronia'' is a classic-sounding album of the Neo Prog genre with clear influences from the early works of MARILLION and PENDRAGON, characterized by the careful melodies, the hypnotic guitar solos and the flashy synthesizers.The tracks are quite long with plenty of symphonic references in the keyboard parts and, as expected, a vocalist capable of delivering expressive singing lines.Ulysses' sounds fails to have its own personality and actually it does not escape the aforementioned influences at a single moment, but the talent is there to offer nice and pleasant compositions.The band blends quite succesfully the more melodic tunes with bombastic and intense instrumental passages, fronted by the good guitar work of Rudnik and the satisfying keyboard ideas of Dhiel.A couple of more mellow tracks in a ballad style are also added for good measure, but fail to improve the overall sound of the album.

As mentioned, Ulysses changed their name to Neronia after the release, to avoid any illegal issues, which was followed by a huge number of line-up changes.The band finally returned in the new millenium with a sound flirting with Neo Prog, Hard Rock and Prog Metal, producing two albums, ''Nerotica'' (2004) and ''Blue Circles'' (2008).

The debut and sole work of Ulysses should be an instant purchase for all lovers of Neo Prog.Melodic, passionate and slightly symphonic Progressive Rock, good enough for all fans of the style.Recommended.