MUTE

I'm very glad I've come across this band from the Swedish-speaking west coast area of Finland (thanks for the CD's!). Such a shame how unknown our modern prog bands tend to be. I can warmly recommend Opus Symbiosis to a friend of melodic and energetic neo/crossover prog, no matter which country (s)he's living in. Lyrics are in English, and it's doubtlessly the British Neo scene - with some Swedish, edgier flavour - that they are best compared to. They have a good female vocalist, Christine Sten, and the men share background vocals here and there (at least on 'Black Box'). Christine's clear and strong voice is rather similar to e.g. MAGENTA's singer. The band sound has some (Hogarth-era) Marillion-ish colour in keyboards and guitars especially, but the compositions have more Rush- reminding adrenalin and edge than a typical Marillion tune. Actually I would personally accept them into Neo Prog section too, the songs are pure prog even though they often operate in the accessible poppy side of it.

This CD-single contains three songs. All are very effective and mostly in a high tempo. 'Bartolomeus' can be listened from PA, so you can form an idea by your own ears. The albums do have much more variety in tempo and moods, happily, but it's OK not to have anything calmer on a 22-minute release. A fine band indeed, and my album reviews will follow sooner or later.