II = I

This is the second album of Sweden band formed in 1999. They released their debut "Extension of The Wish" in 2001. There is a change in line-up since the debut album with new lead singer David Fremberg and the exit of previous bass player Gert Daun. The bass line is now taken care by the guitar player Johan Reinholdz. Basically it has transformed from five-piece to four-piece band. The rest of the band members are intact: Thomas Lejon looks after drum stools and Martin Herdin (keyboards).

The band has a potential future as great band in progressive metal arena. This album represents their existence in this arena demonstrating their ability to compose and deliver their music with power and energy. Using Mike Portnoy's view of sort of progressive metal elements (*), this album is heavy (70%), progressive (10%) and melodic (20%). Despite its power and energy, the album is (sometimes) lacking in structure and harmony, I would say. It's probably a mixing / production issue.

Having been opened with soft keyboard and guitar, "Encyclopedia" blasts off with heavy riffs and speed bass line followed by vocal. The music flows in full energy with soft guitar riffs at background. At tempo change, during transition, guitar takes its solo part augmented with symphonic keyboard at background. To my personal taste, the harmony between guitar riffs and drum is a bit lacking. It sounds rough to my ears. At approx min 4:50 - the part where the voice is backed with solo drum and keyboard punch - it does not sound natural to me. This track has a very good guitar solo (in the vein of classic rock music) at the ending part. Unfortunately . this guitar solo has to end not in natural way - it fades out and replaced by tape loop of percussion sound. Uughh . what a regret!

"Mirages" starts off with heavy guitar riffs / solo followed by drumming. The voice line enters the scene with the riffs at the back. There is nice keyboard work combined with guitar solo accompanying the vocal. The guitar solo during interlude is stunning.

"Reaching Deep Within" kicks off with a guitar and keyboard works followed by drum and bass. Again, it sounds to me that this part is lacking harmony and melody. It sounds rough. The riffs produced during the voice line are simple but a bit boring to me. To me, this is a straight forward metal tune. "Two Is One" is the longest track (10:09) . It starts with a nice guitar fills followed by slow tempo music to feature voice line. No guitar riffs at this part. The tempo moves faster at approx min 4:00 with higher tone voice line. The guitar riffs start to roll in the middle of the track augmented with good keyboard sound. The combination of guitar and keyboard solo during interlude / transitions is really good.

"Morphing Into Nothing" is an upbeat instrumental piece demonstrating keyboard and guitar sounds. It's a very good composition. I like the harmony of two sounds (keyboard and guitar) in the middle of the track (approx min 4:00) onward. It actually can be better if the mixing is improved as it sounds bit rough to me.

"Castaway" is a mellow track performed in ballad style. The vocal harmony is excellent, the piano fills are stunning. No riffs; guitar is played with fills. No drumming. Solo piano is wonderful. I can hear that the lead singer voice in low register is very good. It's a melodic and relaxing track.

"Parasite" blows off with heavy music and it flows in typical prog met music. The music turns quieter in the middle of the track with great keyboard and voice line. This part is really nice. I can hear sort of jazz/fusion influence in this track.

"One In My Head" starts off with a melodic piano / keyboard touch followed by upbeat music with excellent guitar and keyboard. This track has relatively long instrumental as the vocal takes off around the middle of the track. Despite good performance, this track is lacking in structure (music wise) and mixing (production wise).

"This Fragile Surface" is probably the most symphonic one compared to the other tracks. Yes, there are guitar riffs still but it only accentuates the bars during the voice line. The guitar solo and keyboard work are really wonderful and melodic. This is an excellent track well positioned to conclude the album.

Overall this album is good but not essential. However, I would still recommend this album for those of you who like progressive metal music like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Ice Age, Pain of Salvation, Evergrey, etc. Rating: 3.25/5. GW, Indonesia.

Reference: (*) Interview with Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater as it can be seen from DREAM THEATER "Live at Budokan" DVD - disc 2. It's a simple and practical definition of progressive metal genre, I think.