TIME

Well, I wrote the bio some time ago but the review is still missing. This will change now because here it finally is:

Actually it was a fortunate coincidence that 7for4 called my attention. The four guys from Munich (Germany) filled in for "Flying food Circus" at short notice and supported "Karmakanic" in Würzburg. They not only left a mark on me, everyone was enthused and thrilled. I ordered their albums immediately and the same feelings afflict me everytime I listen to the studio versions. But what are the magic ingredients that constitute their music and the latest output "Time"? Well, you can't actually say which genre they belong to. Basically it is a compound of Fusion and Prog Metal, but as I said before, basically. Guitarist and songwriter Wolfgang Zenk mingles the brew with various trimmings such as latin, jazz, blues and even country. The music is, with the exception of one song, all instrumental and reaches from atmospherical to VERY fast and features incredible breaks at impossible spots. It's something I never heard before and it really impresses me.

The album commences with "Zeitgeist". A wonderful and melodic tune between Fusion and Liquid Tension Experiment like prog Metal. It partly features the bass as lead instrument. I already told you about the latin flavour, here it is. "TempERAmento" implicates a strong samba feeling in a fusion garment. Great drumming, unbelievable breaks, terrific song, perfect for your next holidays in Brazil ;) "Where are you now" is the only song featuring singing, but the female vocals blend in quite good, it fits the general sound. "7:44 am" which also is 7:44 minutes long (also remember the band name), offers matutinal gloom. It's an atmospherical and medolic tune featuring jazz as well as some prog metal parts, a highlight. The first part of the title song abducts you to a different world. Pink Floyd? Yes, in the beginning but it changes to a mellow, muted fusion song, beautiful. In "Rock'n'Rolex" ex "Sieges Even" guitarist Wolfgang Zenk comes up with nice melodies and insane guitar solos. Same with "Perpentuum Mobile". 7for4 outpaces Liquid Tension Experiment at times, apart from the Fusion featured here. What follows is a welcome break after the last very rapid songs. It's the second part of the title song, again very beautiful and calm...in the beginning. In the second half the song changes to a prog metal tune with a long guitar solo, but no shredding here, it's a melodic one. "Flux Capacitor", you may know this thing from "Back to the Future" with Michael J. Fox. The song is made up of jazzy and prog metal parts and yet again, incredible breaks. "Burnt chicken wings" is...Country-Prog? Well, it's a really funny tune and another highlight. The last tune "Slow [e]motion" is a calm and worthy closure of an amazing album.

7for4 is a superlatively interesting band featuring lots of different influences and styles. As I said before, they can be generally gegarded as either prog metal or fusion. Due to their various ingredients it's hard to find similar bands. Maybe it can be regarded as a mixture of Liquid Tension Experiment and the Mahavsihnu Orchestra if you want. Maybe Mastermind's "Excelsior!" is another good example. But "Time" is much more frisky, you can almost hear how many fun it is to play this music and that's what I've seen live, four guys having a lot of fun playing this crazy music. You have to listen to the samples on their homepage. Highly recommended!

This is a must have! Although this falls more into instrumental-Hard Prog rock, that certainly doesnt degrade this album in any respect. The musicianship, notably of the drummer, is top notch. The one song that really nails it home for me has to be Temperamento (which by good fortune can be heard on this website). Although I do think it is slightly worse than their previous album "Contact," it is still a magnificent album, just as frenetic as their first release. This is definitely not cool jazz! If you're just getting into this group, head for the other album, but I can assure this album is very close in quality. 4/5

What a nice surprise. This German band does a mix of Dream Theater like prog metal and fusion/jazz. Add some Canterbury scene and instrumental guitar music (Steve Vai etc etc) into the mix and you get 7 For 4. Most of all; this band sounds like Dream Theater goes fusion. Or like them if they decide to do this. Most of the music is instrumental only, but there are some female vocals on a couple of the tunes here.

The result is pretty good. I guess this is music for the musicians out there. The standard of the musicians is on the highest level. The standard of the tunes are not that good. The tunes tends to be pretty anonyme. None of the tunes are remarkable. But the overall quality of the album is good. I guess Dream Theater fans with interest in jazz and fusion will declare their interest in 7 For 4. I am missing the really good tunes.

3 stars and I am off to buy the other two 7 For 4 albums.

7 for 4 is a german jazz fusion band who has three albums since now. This one Time is their second one from 2004. Hmm intristing combinations of jazz - fusion prog metal in places some folkish elements ar added here and there, the resoult is 7 for 4. The album is mainly instrumental with some exceptions, that means they have enough spave to demonstarate their skills in prog music. The musicians are very talented , that is clear when you pieces like: Zeitgeist,TempERAmento or Where Are You Now (with a beautiful female voice of Conny Kreitmeier), the rest of the pieces are ok, but sometimes is to much noodleings that makes me go to sleep, nothing special, but as whole the album is a good one. We have here as main composer the guitarist from the famous german prog metal band Sieges Even - Wolfgang Zenk. He new how to manage to create something pleasent combining some very intristing riffs with some pleasent and very intriguing solos - from jazz smoothness to some latin parts here and there, some prog metal chops melted with jazz give to the listner a special atmosphere. So a good album, that desearves for sure 3 stars, I can't give more because of that parts that are a little boring. Worth couple of spins, nothing groundbreaking but ok and inventive in places, similar with Anomaly (the dutch one), LTE or Gordian Knot.

7 for 4 is a german jazz fusion band who has three albums since now. This one Time is their second one from 2004. Hmm intristing combinations of jazz - fusion prog metal . The album is mainly instrumental with some exceptions, that means they have enough space to demonstarate their skills in prog music. The musicians are very talented , that is clear when you pieces like: Zeitgeist,TempERAmento or Where Are You Now (with a beautiful female voice of Conny Kreitmeier), the rest of the pieces are ok, but sometimes is to much noodleings that makes me go to sleep, nothing special, but as whole the album is a good one. We have here as main composer the guitarist from the famous german prog metal band Sieges Even - Wolfgang Zenk. He knew how to create something pleasent combining some very intristing riffs with some pleasent and very intriguing solos - from jazz smoothness to some latin parts here and there, some prog metal chops melted with jazz give to the listner a special atmosphere. So a good album, that desearves for sure 3.5 stars, I can't give more because of that parts that are a little boring. Worth couple of spins, nothing groundbreaking but ok and inventive in places, similar with Anomaly (the dutch one), LTE or Gordian Knot.

Drummer Klaus Engl shared his time between 7 For 4 and his earlier band Serum, but as Serum demised in 2003 he focused on his work with the emerging Heavy Fusion German act, which was now moving on to the recordings of a second album, titled ''Time'' and eventually released on MGI in 2004.Female singer Conny Kreitmeier, who later collaborated with several German acts like Panzerpappa, RPWL or Schizofrantik, participates in one track.

Do not expect any signs of stylistical changes between ''Time'' and ''Contact'', this was another Heavy Prog album by the Germans, fusing primarly the jazzy looseness with other styles such as Heavy Metal, Neo-Classical Music and a bit of Funk.Wolfgang Zenk tries really hard to keep a balance between egoistic guitar manipulations or virtuosic soloing and more melodic offerings, either way or another his repertoire includes complex hooks and twists along with furious soloing, characterizing more or less the material played by the whole band.While acts such as PLANET X or LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT are the obvious comparisons, I can even here echoes of vintage groups such as FOCUS or RUSH in 7 For 4's material, from the old-styled jazzy fests of JAN AKKERMAN to the powerful leads of ALEX LIFESON.Like many contemporary Heavy Rock and Prog Metal acts, 7 For 4 have an evident tendency to add some Classical terms in their music.Keyboard parts are great, ranging from frenetic flashes to dominant runs with the piano providing even some Avant-Garde lines in the process.The result is an album of almost all instrumental music for fans of Tech Prog Rock and Metal with endless thematic turns.Only exception comes from ''Where are you now'', the track that features the performance of Conny Kreitmeier, and sounds like a mix of KING CRIMSON-ian Fusion with Alternative Rock, pretty decent but a bit out of the album's mood.

I can't say that ''Time'' is close to the masterful tracks composed by LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, but there is some great instrumental stuff contained in here and if you like technical but balanced Prog Fusion with a heavier edge this is a very good effort.Recommended.