ISOLATE

When I acquired this album more than 10 years ago, I was quite amazed about its drive and sonic quality. The vocal range is great, playing is very solid. Compositions are mainly melodic, chorus quite inspired by classic heavy metal movements. You can hear the inspiration by Dream Theater but this is less pretentious and technical. Longer instrumental sections are not frequent but one delicious one is the technical "Sane no more" which could have been longer. "Zero" fills the spaces for ballads and is quite effective at that thanks to melody, lower complexity. "Mouth of madness" is the most ambitious composition with great acoustic intro and graduating guitar riffing before a symphonic moment comes replaced by straightforward amiable metal. The last two tracks are a bit of disappointment for me as they fail to carry on the same quality. "Ultimate Sacrifice" is the most pompous track here with strings, organ and serious ending. Quite a good album with above average playing but average compositions for a progressive metal band so 3 stars.