ZANTEA CHRONICLES: THE DREAM DOMINATOR

This is a project of songwriter/keyboardist Antonis Adelfidis who decided to make a 100 minutes concept epic rock album with 8 vocalists and no guitar and bass. How can this music be heavy Prog? The first part of the album, it's somewhat spacey, played at a slow pace with piano and drums. We can hear the cool melodies lines of Antonis that start to emerge and the pace to pick up. "Rotting King" brings some Ray Manzarek kind of keyboard melodies. The synths show some heaviness that is strangely similar to some guitar riffs, in the song "The Exiled" for example. In this song, there is a dark atmosphere and again some nice keyboard parts. Each vocalist plays a different character in the story which brings some male and female singing. "The Spell of Freedom" is a prog metal track played at a fast pace. In "Sirin Ablaze" the heaviness comes again from the synths and Ray Manzarek's influences resurface similar to the legendary song "Light My Fire" but Antonis brings his own twist with some excellent keyboards parts. In conclusion, despite the lack of guitar and bass, this is not where this album fails to be a worthy addition to your collection but in the quality of the compositions that could improve on the next release.

Amazing work really.

We can mention the huge (over a hundred minute) creation is a kind of miracle produced by FORBIDDEN MYTH founded by a Greek multi-instrumentalist / producer Antonis ADELFIDIS. His endless creativity as a lyrical composer is overflowing on this opus firmly for shaping a robust long novel. Antonius and his musical colleagues would go forward straightly as a precision manufacturer with eight storytellers ... that such tight instrumental techniques and favourable composition / production all over the album can tell. Each track is composed simply and friendly, full of catchy melody lines and non-complicated rhythmic bases. Art rock or crossover progressive rock fans could be immersed in this pop texture but quirky rock fans like avantgarde, post, or psychedelic freaks could feel something crazy is missing via this album.

"Light's Predominance" possesses quite cool pop structure. Their playings (especially Antonius' synthesizer and Swede's drumming) are had-edged but sensitive. The combination of catchiness and hard rock passion is pretty listener-friendly. On the contrary, melodic (and synthetic) instability through the first shot is another mystery. Good for us is such a melodic / atmospheric contrast. Brilliant keyboard timbre is immersive and impressive in "A Ring Between Her Eyes" or "The Luminescent Girl". One of my favourite tracks "Sirin Ablaze" involves ethnic movements and kinetic melodious madness along with deep guitar riffs and heavy strict drumming. This stuff can be called as Heavy Prog. The epilogue "Epilogue Of Forgiveness" is flooded with beautiful keyboard-based dreamy theatrical vibes and grooves, that can notify us this would go well with their last run.

This amazing work will make us full stomach. At any rate we can give the project words of praise because of such a collective of colourful sound grandeur.

Led by Antonis Adelfidis, Forbidden Myth tells in their debut album, "Zantea Chronicles : The Dream Dominator", an epic story about the eternal struggle between good (the young Sirin) and the hidden forces of evil (Vosar). An extensive work that in more than a hundred minutes is imaginatively divided into two great phases, gloomy for the most part and hopeful towards the end. Without guitars or bass as part of their musical proposal, the Greeks manage to round off a conceptual album sustained by a wide range of keyboards, from classical piano to digital synthesizers, with a great variety of vocal registers given the eight singers summoned for the occasion, and a very good percussion performance.

Right at the beginning of the first part, the intriguing "Overture of Loss" and its airs of the most experimental moments of Porcupine Tree, plunges into a tense and disturbing atmosphere full of sonic elements, always in the hand of synthesizers that trace the path that will be maintained throughout the album, framed by a persistent melancholic character even in its most intense developments. Moments of deep darkness run as with "Light's Predominance", or in the revealing "The Luminescent Girl" whose keyboards resemble the sounds of guitar riffs, or with the mid-tempos of the tempting "The Puppeteer", the initial hammond of the stabbing "Rotting King", or with the accelerated and changing "City of Decay", one of the most forceful pieces.

On the other hand, the final part of the album contains shades of disillusionment and hope, such as the revealing "A Ring Between Her Eyes" and its interesting piano solo, the opening chords of "Dreams` Prisoner" and its peaceful female voice, the determined "Sirin Ablaze", the trepidant "King of the World / The Eyes of a Stranger" in another of the highlights, and the conclusive and victorious "Epilogue of Forgiveness", which closes the story emotionally.

The very interesting "Zantea Chronicles: The Dream Dominator", although it would surely have gained more vitality with the combustion that the guitars generate and that the bass contribution usually underpins, shows the solid musical structure of Forbidden Myth, and its enormous potential to keep growing.

3/3,5 stars