ANOMALY

This is a very interesting instrumental band from the Netherlands. Although labeled as prog metal, their main influence is jazz and jazz-rock/fusion. The first track, B-YOND 2K, is quite misleading, having all the Dream Theater cliches you might find in several bands of the late 90´s and early 00´s: short, abrasive metal riffs, big drums a la Mike Portnoy and atmospheric keys. But as the tracks flow the jazz elements become more evident and by the end of the CD, with the exception of the straight, heavy metal drumming style of John-Paul Muñoz , you´ll think that this is definitely a jazz-rock combo. They also say that there is some classical music influence, but I found none as far as I can hear. How they should be labeled? jazz-metal, maybe?

The music itself is quite interesting, but nothing really spectacular. In fact, this self titled CD can be rated as promising: the tunes are nice, the musicians know their trade and the overall performance is convincing. Anomaly certainly showed some good ideas, proved their sound has something of a distinctive personality, but they are still green in terms of writing good, catchy stuff. The album does not move me much: they have the potential to go very far (if they are still around)., but they still had to honey their songwriting skills. The best parts lay on the second half of the CD, where the songs are more creative and escape from the shadow of Dream Theater. The Art Of War is the longer (and best) track here, and shows their potential in full. Production is merely adequate. They would benefit enormously with a cleaner sound.

rating: 3 stars. Good, but definitely non essential.