SNOOZE

When you look to the beautiful cover of this album, something tells you that you are not going to be disappointed with it. And you're right: the music is as beautiful as the cover itself. This is one of the most underrated albums of 2004, I don't see it worse than Riverside's "Out of Myself", White Willow's "Storm Season" or Knight's Area "The Sun Also Rises".

The mainly influence of the album is DREAM THEATER. We can see it in the several different arrangements of the tracks. It does not have the same strength or intensity of DREAM THEATER's riffs and orchestration, but it not the main objective. This is a more rock orientated album. But certainly it does not lack it in emotional intensity or beautiful and pleasant instrument passages! This is a true progressive album, with long complex suites, take look for example at the long 19:53 Dream Killer with its several musical passages. The part starting at 14:20 minute is the climax of the song (probably inspired in SYMPHONY X) very melancholic and intense as Linx sings "Could this be over/Should I trust life again" followed by a strength chorus repeating himself and reinforcing the idea! Fantastic! The track Pay the Price shows an obviously ARENA and neo progressive bands inspiration.

All over the album beautiful melodies, Linx voice is very nice, all the music performers show good qualities in their instruments. There are many emotional guitar solo's a la PINK FLOYD all over like in the superb Struggle of the 2nd cd; fairly good piano passages, good bass performing (not boring repetitive, very creative), some symphonic deriving in the organ passages, good background chorus and some real background motives like the wind in A Truce. Instrumentally, fairly good! Good ambiences!

Overall, despite not being a force of originality, it blends some influences quite well, offering you a lot of feelings (and that's progressive mood it's all about). If you're a progressive rock fan or a DREAM THEATER's fan who does not mind a little less heavy sounding, you will love this album.

My rate: 6/10