STEPS

The music on the album is technical/progressive metal. The band are well playing, and the album features a professional and well sounding production, but like the case was on the debut album, where Sieges Even had obviously listened a bit too much to "Energetic Disassembly (1985)" by Watchtower, the band have also listened a bit too much to one specific album this time around. On "Steps" it seems like Sieges Even are very influenced by " Perfect Symmetry (1989)" by Fates Warning. Again they wear their influences a bit too much on their sleeve for comfort.

Lead vocalist Franz Herde tries hard to sound like Ray Alder. He has a good voice but his German accent is a bit cringe worthy. His singing often comes off sounding awkward too because of the complex music and many time signature changes. The melody lines simply sound randomly placed in the songs and they are not that memorable. The instrumental part of the music isvery interesting though with lots of intriguing parts. Guitarist Markus Steffen plays some beautiful parts on this album. Both acoustic and distorted parts. The rhythm section of brothers Alex and Oliver Holzwarth are very tight, adventerous and incredibly skilled.

The album opens with the 26:21 minute long "Tangerine windows of solace" which is a long track which is subdivied into smaller tracks. It´s the centerpiece and highlight of the album. In addition to the "regular" instrumentation "Tangerine windows of solace" features a violin part, which was quite an innovative thing in metal at the time although Sieges Even were neither the only nor the first metal band to use that instrument.

"Steps" is on many parameters a very impressive album, but because of the forgettable and at times almost awkward melody lines and the sometimes too complex approach to songwriting, "Steps" at times come off as an in impressive technical playing and nerdy songwriting. I personally think the music lacks emotional impact. Still it´s probably a real treat to fans of über technical progressive metal and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

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