TODAY'S REPORT

Some time ago, A.C.T's third album, entiteled Last Epic, was listed among the 20 best eclectic prog albums so, the first time I had the opportunity to come across any A.C.T album, which was, ironically, their debut album, I bought it right away, not only because one of their albums were so highly regarded, but also because it was fairly unexpensive.

When i came home i immediatelly put the album to play, but right away I was incredibly disappointed for 3 reasons, basically: 1) the album sounds like progressive metal (the music is not as hard/heavy as other bands from progressive metal, but the overall result sounds pretty much like a generic band from said genre), 2) the band sounded much like another Swede progressive metal band (Andromeda, specially when compared to Andromeda's first album), but had much sillier arrangements and 3) I bought the album thinking about buying something completelly different, some kind of music that would mix the most diverse genres ever, like usually happens in the Eclectic Prog genre, what obviously did not happened (some have said that this band has Queen, Supertramp and Rush influences, but i just can't see/listen them, seriously).

So, as you can see, i got something completelly different from what I expected and my first reaction was going back to the store to change the CD or ask my money back, but just before leaving my house, i thought, what the hell, i'll give this a chance and, in the following days I listened to the album again and again and realised it was actually quite good. Indeed, despite the silly arrangements the album is not that bad at all.

Also, it is important to note that this album is an uplifting one. All songs are in major scales and that, together with the arrengements, makes the songs sound like they do. The problem is that it also makes some songs sound extra silly, because these songs havesad lyrics, so wtf A.C.T?

The highlights definitelly go to their singer. What a great vocal work we have here! As for the songs, the hightlights go to Abandoned World, Waltz with Mother Nature, Why Bother and Personalities (The Long One).

Grade and Final Thoughts

This album really grew on me: from something I despised to something I like. Though the album is not perfect, it is really enjoyable and recomended, if you like this kind of soft uplifting progressive metal or heavy arena rock. Thus, its grade is 4 stars

One important final note is that, in the special edition there is one video of a live performance, where they pley the song Welcome. The song is not very impressive, but the instrumental work is pretty good. The biggest problem is the vocal department: the vocalist clearly can't sing as good as in the studio, and he actually sings out of pitch in a lot of parts. Nevertheless, the album still pretty good.

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