A SENSE OF CHANGE

It so happens that the most known of the seven Sieges Even albums are the softest - this album, 1991's A sense of change, and 2005's The art of navigating by the stars. A sense of change has a sparse production, features lots of clean and classical guitar and even a fully classical piece. But soft is no synonym for easy. A sense of change is probably the most difficult to get into, with its dizzying stops-and-starts, abrupt time signature and melody changes, sometimes every 15 seconds or so. Vocalist, who has a strong voice, also uses it as a sort of solo musical instrument, singing long notes in juxtaposition to the instruments and even Queen's Freddy Mercury's "ta-da-da- da-da-dams". The main influence here is not metal, but rather jazz and, from the rock canon, probably the headier Rush and King Crimson stuff, but in traces. This is no copycat band.