MEDEA

A pretty good cast puts together a pretty good impersonation of an Ayreon album. John Jaycee Cuijpers adds a touch of class to a good ensemble cast led by multi-instrumentalist Henry Meeuws. Took a bit finding on Spotify which confuses the band/album title with another band name and attributes it to an unrelated band - I found it when checking out Jaycee's page which is otherwise strangely empty. All the vocalists are strong, especially Sandra Peeters, and Frank de Groot adds fine bass work. Discogs references another Madea album with a similar cast called "Northern Light" that is not on Spotify - maybe I'll go old school and buy a physical copy! I give 4 stars because I think this album is a great way to experience fine artists who are otherwise under represented.

Medea is a dutch progressive metal band formed around the excellent guitarist Henry Meeuws. They released so far two albums, Individual unique and Room XVII in 2006. The music is very much close to another famous band from land of tulips Ayreon, but with their own twist and with a lot of great ideas. The debut is released in 2003 named Individual unique and has an very intresting concept - is about a young ambitious artist in 18th Century from Florence- Italy who is visited by the spirit of Michelangelo. Lots of cast of characters, female/male singers, musicians and all perform and give life to the story. Musicaly speaking is prog metal well performed with some bombastic parts , a rock opera I might say very much what Ayreon done in the past. The pieces are long enough to show us that the instrumental passages are well developed, some very nice guitar/keyboards moves, the opening Overture 1564 is excellent setting the mood for the rest to come, 'Day' & 'Night' the lenghtier track from here , clocking around 10 min is another top piece, Henry Meeuws handle the guitar pretty well and aswell the keyboards. All in all more then decent album in prog metal field, maybe not as great as their second offer Room XVII, but I like what I've heread on both albums, is a pitty that they've stoped only on 2 albums so far, promissing band for sure. 3.5 stars without hesitation.

Medea is a dutch progressive metal band formed around the excellent guitarist Henry Meeuws. They released so far two albums, Individual unique and Room XVII in 2006. The music is very much close to another famous band from land of tulips Ayreon, but with their own twist and with a lot of great ideas. Their second release is a concept album about dutch history, voyage of the Batavia and the lands conquered by tdutch in 17 century. The head of the band Henry Meeuw who is also the keyboard player in another dutch band Casual Silence, he gathered around him an impressive line up featuring musicians from Casual Silence, Day Six, Ayreon, and a huge choir of 65 men named Lombardi. This album must be considered also a rock opera close to what Ayreon done for years, with some incredible musicianship and great ideas. Maybe the album overall is a little calmer, but the harder moments are not forgotten, some impressive solo's and catchy progressive guitar-themes are here to be enjoyed on this album. The concept behind the story is very well done and very well puted along with the music, I'm not gonna tell everything about it, you must get the CD and you will understand the whole thing. The best pieces are all, not a weak moment in my opinion, the opening track , the title track is brilliant and shows the true talent of Henry Meeuws, who is very underrated among guitarist from this decade, sad because he realy know how to make a piece shine in prog metal genre. The bombastic piece State of suspense featuring that 65 male choir is brilliant, just take a listen and you will love it from the first second and the final piece the longest one Chaos solution nearly 11 min of high class prog metal. So, as a conclusion this band is very underrated in prog circles, I don't realy know why, their music is brilliant and very catchy for sure. The album has many qualities , lots of variations, good song structures and outstanding musicianship. The one's who like Day Six, Ayreon, Shadow Gallery to some point, Medea is recommended, and specially this second album. 4 stars for sure, great and yet very unnoticed band and album, a good addition in any collection.