INVISIBLE

This album surprised me a lot, in fact I didn't like at first but after the second or third listening it quickly became addictive and enjoyable. I mean is a great hard-rock/melodic metal album with very nice arrangements and melodies, but not proggy at all, except maybe for Stalingrad.

Great album, 4 stars for a metal album (not 5 just because it's too damn short)

But this is progarchives, so 3 is more accurate I think.

Invisible is the fifth album from swedish soft progressive rock/ metal band Nightingale. Nightingale started life as a one man project by singer, keyboardist Dan Swanö. Dan Swanö is one of the most prolific swedish metal musicians in the last 20 years and after having released a couple of albums with his main band Edge of Sanity in the early nineties he chose to show his love for progressive rock with his project band Nightingale while still making albums with Edge of Sanity as well as countless other project bands ( Maceration, Bloodbath etc...etc).

Invisible takes off where the previous album Alive Again: the Breathing Shadow part IV ended. The style had moved towards a more hard rocking / heavy prog sound with neo progressive tendencies on that album compared to the more symphonic approach of the early albums. The move towards heavy prog with lots of organ and hard/ heavy rock riffs is now completed and there are only few times on Invisible that the neo progressive elements appear. When they do it´s a really nice change to the now heavy prog sound. Invisible is actually a pretty heavy album and at times border metal.

All the songs on the album are good but I must confess that I enjoy the least heavy songs the most. I find songs like the beautiful The Wake and the progressive Stalingrad to be the highlights on the album. I also enjoy songs like Still Alive and Atlantis Rising. But as I said the album generally holds high quality.

The musicianship is really good and this time we hear even more facettes of Dan Swanö´s great voice. Tom Nouga plays some nice guitar solos on the album as well. It seems like this style suits him fine.

The production is the most heavy sound that Nightingale has had up until now.

The coverart is very well done. Lots of atmosphere.

After the brilliant Alive Again: the Breathing Shadow part IV I remember being a bit disappointed with the more heavy approach Nightingale has pursued on Invisible. I like heavy music but with Nightingale I have always enjoyed their more subtle beautiful parts. The omnipresent organ does annoy me a bit too. Sometimes it sounds great though. So this is not my favorite Nightingale album and that hasn´t changed since the first time I listened to it even though I have had this album and listened to it since the day it was released. I´ll have to go with a 3 star rating and recommend that you start with Nightingale´s second album The Closing Chronicles before listening to any of the other albums from Nightingale. This one isn´t bad though just not as good as I think they were earlier in their career.

'Invisible' - Nightingale (4/10)

This album came highly recommended to me as a great 'prog' album. Now, after having listened a good few times, I still don't see what the prog appeal is. This is nothing more than radio rock. As far as AOR goes, it's not bad, but this is really nothing special. 'Invisible' is essentially what Nickelback would sound like if Chad Kroger listened to Opeth.

The only song that has any remote prog appeal is the closer 'Stalingrad' which makes use of synthesizers. However, the rest of the album doesn't really seem to push the barrier much.

'Invisible' doesn't work on an album-level. There isn't really a flow, seeing as most of the songs follow a similar format. There isn't a complete void of musical credibility however. Some songs such as 'Raincheck On My Demise' is certainly listenable. However, even then there isn't enough meat on the bones to consider this Prog. Maybe remotely prog related, but not prog. I won't lie however, alot of the songs on 'Invisible' (with a particular note on 'Still Alive') can be pretty damned catchy, but it's just one of those albums that becomes less and less enjoyable with each listen.

Coming from such an influential figure as Dan Swano, I would be expecting much more than this dissapointment. From someone who practically innovated the Progressive Death Metal movement, a radio rock 'collection of songs' really doesn't do such a man justice. Dissapointing.