DIVIDED

the perfect blend of metal and prog, with tastes of ambient, a natural album from great musicians, a shema that this is the last album. The timing, the sound, the use of different sounds is amazing. Check out Divided and Childhood facade, a masterpiece from a very naive and young band

Very high technical skills, crisp and clean production, and most of all, these guys not only know how to use their instruments, they are also skillful and effective songwriters! Check out "Childhood Facade" or "When The Cradle Lies", these two songs alone are so STRONG they make it worth buying the record. Too bad the band is no more.

With this sophomore album, sadly their last one, Dutch band Lemur Voice delivered their ultimate testimony for the world of prog metal. "Divided" reveals an enhanced power and an increased sophistication in comparison to their also excellent debut "Insights". It is clear that the four instrumentalists have achieved a tighter cohessiveness regarding the usual display of energy demanded by prog metal standards. It is also noticeable how well has the rhythm duo matured as a server of foundation for the other musicians: their augmented swing and groove (some of it provided by the stick instead of the bass) definitely help the guitar riffs and solos to shine in a special light, and the same goes for the keyboard textures, adronments and phrases polishedly delivered by Franck Faber. Lead vocalist Gregoor van der Loo has also shown improvement, mastering perfectly the various moods that the lyrics and melodies demand in unison with the musical motifs. Eerie cosmic synth layers and Arabic chanting serve the intro of 'Solilocide' before the whole band erupts wildly and fiercely. This amazing opener is followed by the even rougher 'Universal Roots', which somewhat follows in the footsteps of "Awake"-era Dream Theater but with no cloning. 'All of Me' brings more of the same, albeit bearing a more patent melodic vibe. 'Childhood facade' is the longest track in the album, one of the hghlights indeed. It comprises complex structures, fluid mood shifts and well-ordained tempo changes. The melancholy sections of this track portray a genuine reflective spirit, with van der Loo going really emotional for it. 'Lethe's Bow' is the other very long track, equalling 'Childhood Facade' in terms of power and complexity, yet focusing more on strength and less on melody. Van de Wouw and Tromp shine with a special luminiscence here, creating a solid nucleus for the overall track's electrifying majesty. This is another peak, and so is the title track, as well. The 'Divided' song incarnates better than other tracks the aura of enhanced sophistication that I mentioned earlier in this review. The inclusion of strong jazz-rock flavors in this track makes the band lean somewhat closer to a version of Gordian Knot- meets-classic Fates Warning. 'Parvedian Trust' is yet another metallic gem, this time with an added touch of industrial-inspired adornments: it's 5 minute long and its concise genius makes me wish it had been longer. 'When the Cradle Lies' is a stylish semi-ballad that may remind the listener of Vanden Plas to a ceratin degree. The instrumental 'New Yanini' (Van der Loo makes some humming in places) finds the band exploring their melodic side deeper, in a context more proper of ethnic-pop rock than prog metal. It surely adds variaety to the album, also giving room to Faber to expand on his clever use of textures and ambiences. You can see a 'Beat It' in the tracklist: yes, it is a cover of that Michale Jackson hit. It's nice and fun, combining poppish hard rock (in the pars more faithful to the original) and jazz in a playful manner. The closer is a Tromp solo on stick, 'Sticks in Space', which takes us mentally to the Tony Levin thing. It's a very captivating number, but it would have served better as an interlude in the middle of the album's repertoire than as a closure, really, but all in all, it is a very nice number. General conclusion: Lemur Voice said farewell with absolute dignity with this excellent opus "Divided" - a valuable item for any good prog metal collection.

From the beginning i might say this is among the best prog metal albums. It's a shame is the last one for Lemur Voice, but with Divided they are here to stay forever in prog metal history. Very high technical skills, they know how to use the instruments, and the result is a 4 star album for me. The forte tracks are Solilocide and Universal roots. Similar bands, Shadow Gallery, Empty Tremor. Highly recommended for prog metal fans.

Dutch metal band Lemur Voice is one of the few with a progressive nature. At least I wanted to check out one of their releases as true Dutch progger and of course fan of progressive metal in general. I picked out this one because it contained quite a lot of tracks, a few really long too. One of the significant features of Lemur Voice is the guy responsible for the "Lemur Voices" as they put it in the booklet: Gregoor van der Loo. A man with a striking voice, quite high in fact and I wonder if he would be in place in the heavy metal scene as a vocalist. Probably a useless question because he and his band are in the progressive metal world and that's simply not the same. The style of playing is metal-like but not of the toughest sort. When they play rough occasionally it's not for an entire song, just a part of it. It produces a differentiated image for this band and in fact I like that. This aspect comes to full expression in their almost funny cover of Beat it (Michael Jackson). When I realized they were really covering this song I could hardly believe it. On itself I'm not a fan of covers and neither of Michael Jackson but I must admit they did a very nice job here, giving the song a whole new appearance. In the second half of the song they even play it jazzy and it sounds very much ok too. Can you believe it ? But of course it's not the very highlight of the album, that wouldn't be a good sign.

Best tracks to me are Childhood facade and When the cradle cries both really well executed. Besides the last track there are no poor or even moderate songs on this album. So that's a big plus and leaves us with over 70 minutes of enjoyment listening to this album. This conclusion is good enough for 4 stars I believe.

It's a bit of an irony that, what ultimately killed the lemur was its voice.

I really don't know the reason behind the Dutch band's disappearance from the music world. But if the reason has anything to do with the band never getting a good record deal or never becoming famous at least within the progressive-metal community, I think the mediocre vocals of its singer have a lot to do with it.

The worst thing about the demise of LEMUR VOICE is that, actually, they were starting to become a truly competent and original prog-metal band. Here we had a group of musicians of the highest talent. An excellent drummer who was also the main lyrics writer for the outfit; a very skilled guitarist who was showing signs of extreme originality, with very unique riffs and ideas; a skilled bassist who played very interesting bass lines; a talented keyboardist who matched the abilities of the rest of the band. All of them were outstanding musicians, and that fact was starting to finally show in "Divided."

"Insights", the band's previous album, was interesting musically but failed to impress this listener with its lack of memorable songs and originality. LEMUR VOICE was very close to a DREAM THEATER clone in that record. But in "Divided", we can hear much more original music. While the influences are still there, there is a new, fresh sound that permeates the disc, with grunge and 70's-hard-rock overtones that add to the experience. The solos are better, the riffs and licks are way better. The songs have more interesting structures and everything seems to start to fall into place. The band manages to create songs that, though not immediately accessible, are much more memorable than some of the bland tracks in their debut. Just take a look at the excellent title-track or the very good "New Yanini" and you'll hear hints of greatness. The band even manages to pull out a decent (if a little awkward, especially in the jazz-styled chorus) Michael Jackson cover! (Admittedly, of one of the pop legend's best songs, Beat It).

But lemurs can't sing. At least in nature they usually can't. And nowhere can one find better evidence to support that statement than in this album. If in "Insights" the vocals were slightly annoying, here in "Divided" they border on the atrocious. Of course, there is a reason: in the debut, the music was weak, therefore the vocals were just another weak element; but here, with much better sounds, the awful vocals fall so far behind the music in terms of quality that the contrast is too high and the image gets much more distorted. Van Der Loo's voice is too high, but that's not the biggest problem. It's too energy- less, too dead. It would seem that the singer was really bored recording this album because he really appears to be singing with absolute no conviction, no strength, no desire to reach anything but the moment when he could walk out of the studio.

And that's what kills this album in the end. The rating would have been higher if the vocals matched the quality of the music (I would go so far as to say that with an excellent singer this record could've gotten a 5 from me). But with what we have, "Divided" is just a tad above its predecessor, and it gets a 3.

This band doesn't exist anymore. And when one hears the vocalist singing, one stops wondering why...

Four stars or five stars? I didn't want to jump the gun on this one too soon even though at one listen and a half I knew that Divided would be one to grow on. In a good way though of course.

I think you'll be convinced by the third song, All To Me. If you don't dig everything this band has to offer after hearing that song, then you probably won't like this album. As far as progressive metal goes, the style is quite within the norms and generally familiar spectrum of the genre.

I'll keep this review short, if you're a fan of Andromeda or Eumeria then you'll be able to walk into Lemur Voice's world and feel right at home. This record is a special one and deserves a listen!