ANGUISH

Like a lot of German progressive metal bands, Anguish didn't stick around long enough to make much of an impact or to gain any kind of recognition. Which is a shame, because 'Symmetry', their second and last album is pretty decent.

While I'm under no illusions that a German prog metal group called "Anguish" were destined to become stadium headliners, I do think it's a shame this band didn't stick around, as the potential is evident on this record that this band could have come up with some pretty good stuff, given time to develop and mature, of course.

Typical with the genre, this album is full of complex compositions and odd time-signatures. However, I like that Anguish don't focus too much on virtuoso musicianship and have a more "song-heavy" style, with lots of emphasis on keyboards. Some great examples can be heard on tracks such as 'N.E.W.', 'Dreaming', 'Obsidian Lies' and the title track.

'Symmetry' may seem like another generic prog metal release, and in all fairness it mostly is, but that doesn't make it a bad album. If you can find it cheap, give it a chance, and discover for yourself that it's definitely a worthy addition to any collection.

One of the lesser known prog metal bands from Germany for last decade and a half his for sure Anguish. They released two albums and then gone into oblivion, disbanded as far as I known around 2004. Their music is quite pleaset, typical teutonic prog metal very similar with their country fellows Lanfear, or Ivanhow. On their second offer Symmetry from 2002 and sadly their last one they ad little more power metal here and there and the sound is great on many parts. There are some very fine first of all vocal parts provided by a guy with intresting name Nuno Miguel de Barros Fernandes, the title track, the opning N.E.W. or Moonlight are excellent in vocal department. Aswell very strong on instrumental sections on all pieces, very nice keyboards made by Marion Nießner and in conbination with guitars there are some strong passages on every piece. All in all a quite good towards great album, gone under the radar in prog metal community and I think worth to be discovered, the musicianship is great most of the time. 3.5 stars for sure.