A SENSE OF CHANGE

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This is just an amazing band for me, their music is far away from the typical ProgMetal and actually from their second until their last album I could not tell which is the best of them, they are all great and I can just rate them with the highest store. "A change of change" is the one with the strongest classical and acoustic influence besides of "STEPS", but easier accessible than that one. But still the music is incredibly complex, RUSH is not a bad reference point, but imagine it more intricate, with nicer vocals. This album is not very much metal-alike, more like Art Rock, but of higher complexity and quality of any other one of this sub-genre. "Change Of Seasons", the one my co-reviewer called unfortunately the most boring one, is in fact a pure classical song with great violin, cello and acoustic guitar. Jogi Kaiser's vocals fit perfectly to the music.

"A sense of change" is a definite masterpiece and must-have in any kind of progressive music collection!!

This arguably progressive metal album sounds a bit like the Rush's "Show don't tell" track of the Presto album. The rhythmic guitar even sounds a bit like the ones on the Moving Pictures album. There is however a slight nuance regarding the guitar sound: it also has some resemblances with Allan Holdsworth's solos and discrete notes, and with Andy Summers' discrete rhythmic sound like on the Police's "Driven to tears" or "Message in a bottle" songs. The music is very clean and disciplined, and it sounds more progressive "hard art rock" than progressive metal, including many sudden breaks and rhythm changes. There are very rare keyboards arrangements, and I must admit that the 3 instruments involved, i.e. the drums, the bass and the guitars are very refined and well played. There are some excellent acoustic guitar parts, and the lead vocals are very good, reminding the French Canadian singer of the Zebulon rock band. The track "Change of season" does not follow the overall genre of the album: it contains not bass, no drums, no electric guitars: it is a very relaxing classical-oriented song made of refined acoustic guitars and string arrangements. The description of this record is not complete without saying that some modern fusion elements are present in most of the tracks.

Rating: 4.5 stars

As the dawn of the 90's appeared, Sieges Even releases their third release "A Sense of Change", a fitting title considering that this work is notably different from their first two ones. It's a rather melodic album and has a far more laid back and comfortable style to it, still, it carries a lot of Watchtower and Rush influences, but in a more melodic vein than Rush and a less chaotic and more emotional vein than Watchtower. It has some really tricky moments, there's lot's of complex time-signatures here, but the band masters them with great control and all of the songs has such a well performed and arranged style and the band glides through the music as a knife in warm butter, showing that these guys really can play, extremely well too! Jogi Kaisers vocals are excellent as well and he fits into the band well.

It's excellently produced, the sound quality is clear and the instruments are perfectly balanced. Together with the excellent music, this gives the album a unique mood to it. It's hard for me trying to find some weak moments here, the only one possibly being "Change of Seasons", a pure classical track supported with an acoustic guitar. It's a very good track, though I like the rest much better.

In sum: A unique and superb release, recommended to anyone who likes complexity in their music with great control, melodic and diverse songs backed up with flawless playing and great production. One of my finest discoveries on this site! My rating: 5/5

I have no words for such a masterpiece, awesame, i'm impressed. I have this album in my colection for 2 years, and everytime i listen i discover something new. This is just an amazing band for me, their music is far away from the typical ProgMetal, "A sense of change" is the one with the strongest classical and acoustic influence i ever heared. I can't choose a track because all of them are superb, well played. The voice , is the best of what they have so far, the brothers are amazing, not to mention the guitar who also did a great job. In the end i add, this is a 5 star album, and maybe one of the best prog albums in history of music. P.S. - Sometimes i belive that bands like :sieges even, the last things, psychotic waltz, lemur voice, dali's dilemma and others needs more attention from you, because they are among the best in prog metal pantheon.

4.5 stars. I would describe this record as a combination of RUSH and FATES WARNING. Although not as melodic as the albums of those two bands, this is definitely melodic and more complex. The lyrics are intelligent to say the least and incredibly well thought out.The only band that they thank in the liner notes is PSYCHOTIC WALTZ.

"Prelude : Ode To Sisyphus" is a short intro track that brings RUSH to mind right away.The sound is so clear as we hear outbursts of guitar,bass and drums.The vocals are very well done by Jogi Kaiser. "The Waking Hours" really is a stage for the band to display their skills.This is complex yet melodic music. The vocals really stand out as well on this one. "Behind Closed Doors" features some intricate guitar melodies and crisp drumming on a song that again brings RUSH to mind. "Change Of Seasons" is literally a classical piece of music with violin, cello, acoustic guitar and reserved vocals. I grew to appreciate it but this song (in part) keeps me from giving this album 5 stars. "Dimensions" is my favourite song on the record and the best song I have heard in some time. The RUSH like intro is amazing ! I am reminded of FATES WARNING as well in this one.The acoustic guitar and vocals sound beautiful as a powerful display of drums, guitar and bass comes in. I love the guitar, and the vocal melody is cool.

"Prime" has some crisp pounding drums as synths swirl about and the bass and vocal melody is great. Another cool vocal melody follows and I have to say that this song is so uplifting at times. And that is really in part what seperates this album from most Metal I listen to, especially complex Metal. This is so emotional at times like ZERO HOUR's latest record. "Epigram For The Last Straw" is mellow for the first couple of minutes then we get some amazing drumming.This song is blessed with lots of time signatures and strong vocals.The guitar and drum melody is impressive. "These Empty Pages" is my second favourite and the longest song on the album. More short, crisp outbreaks of drums and guitar. Some scorching guitar solos as well. Geddy-like synths come in reminding me of the "Moving Pictures" era. What an album !

This is the best SIEGES EVEN record I have heard so far.

|D| Theoretically, my favorite album of all time... ???

I don't understand why I have such a hard time enjoying this album. Everything about points to something I absolutely adore, yet every time I give it a go, I fill like I'm ramming a pill down my throat when I try not to press the stop button out of boredom and a general feeling of discomfort in my gut. The material in the album is often compared to Rush, and rightfully so. The distorted chorus-effect guitar and melodic bass scream almost too loudly the Rush influence. The drumming is really very fusion-ish in spirit, albeit on the technical side. Odd meter and meter changes abound throughout the album, reminding me of some later tech metal groups such as Blotted Science. These elements are some of my favorite elements that can be found in any music, period (as Rush is my favorite band and probably always will be), and they're all right here in this album. Which is exactly what puzzles me, this really should be one of my favorite albums of all time. I've listened to it several times in the attempt for it to "click," which usually happens around the fourth or fifth listen, but every time I come back to it it just leaves me cold.

I think the main reason for this is that, while I'm listening, I can't help but think through almost the entire album a few burning questions, "where exactly is this music going? Where do all of these notes, meter changes, and complicated structures lead to? What point and purpose are these musicians getting to with this madness?" Sadly, the answer to these questions always pops into my head as I listen to the album right now: nowhere. It's just a bunch of complicated quasi-Rush-rip-off composition with no real direction or meaning, to be brutally honest. Even the album as a whole has little cohesiveness to it, it seems like a bunch of tracks assorted to create an album with little thought on how the album as a whole would sound.

Though Rush certainly isn't the only influence for this band. The singing is much like that of Fates Warning, only this vocalist's tone bothers me even more, almost as if he has an orange stuck in the back of this mouth or something. He's a pretty good vocalist in all fairness as far as competence, but I just personally dislike his tone. Psychotic Waltz is another band that comes to mind as an influence, as some of the other reviewers have pointed out.

Though this album certainly has its good, in fact very pleasant moments, mainly when the band drops all of the complicated electric stuff and turns to acoustic instruments. The track Change of Seasons is really a wonderful track for this reason, especially the nice intro with the strings and acoustic guitar. I only wish there were more of these moments, as right after the track we go right back to the directionless Rush sounding material.

I can't stand it when I see reviewers give negative reviews on albums that seem so obviously masterpiece quality to me, but I suppose I've come to sympathize with them now, for this album seems to have collected many starry reviews. There is VERY little prog I ever encounter that I dislike, I can only think of three or four bands that I have many complaints about of the hundreds I've encountered on this site. I guess I might try some of this band's later material, from what I hear it's quite different from this, so I'll give them another shot. But as for this album, while I have much respect for the complexity of the writing and the strong Rush influence, I'm quite terribly disappointed with this album.

"A Sense of Change" is the 3rd full-length studio album by German progressive metal act Sieges Even. The album was released through Steamhammer Records/SPV in January 1991. A lineup change has taken place as new singer Jogi Kaiser has replaced lead vocalist Franz Herde who sang on both "Life Cycle (1988)" and "Steps" (1990). The usual suspects are guitarist Markus Steffen and the Holzwarth brothers Oliver and Alexander on bass and drums respectively.

The music on "A Sense of Change" is technical progressive metal. Sieges Even have developed their technical approach to progressive metal even further since the release of "Steps". New lead vocalist Jogi Kaiser is skilled and has a strong voice. The tracks have multible sections, very complex rythms and intricate and quite melodic playing. Especially the Holzwarth brothers rythm section is incredible. Very fusion influenced, extremely tight and innovative. Guitarist Markus Steffen is also quite the asset. His playing sometimes remind me of how Alex Lifeson from Rush sounds. Actually there are many references to Rush throughout the album but also "Perfect Symmetry (1989)" by Fates Warning must have been a big influence on Sieges Even. The music on "A Sense of Change" is much more complex than anything those two acts ever released though.

There are 8 tracks on the album. Most tracks are in the trademark complex and technically challenging Sieges Even style but the track "Change of Seasons" (hmm...does that ring a bell anyone?) is a bit different because it features strings. The tracks generally take quite a while to get to know, but repeated listens help. It´s not the most accessible music in the world and it´s probably not meant to be either. The vocal melodies are not that memorable to begin with and personally I find them a bit unremarkable if I have to be honest. It´s often that the technical playing gets in the way of power and while the music flow pretty well I could have wished for more focus on strong melodies and less focus on impossible to play time signature changes. But it´s probably the lack of power that gets me the most. It´s like these guys forgot that they were once a metal act. It´s all very sophisticated but I really miss some bite.

The production is professional but a bit cold and uninviting if you ask me.

I like music to captivate me and conjure up emotions in me. Anger, happiness, melancholy...etc. The music on "A Sense of Change" conjures up nothing like that in me. In fact it pretty much leaves me cold. It´s an excellent display of technical playing and in that field Sieges Even are way ahead of most other acts in the genre. And that´s actually saying a lot when you consider the general high quality of playing on most progressive metal albums. The music is somewhat soulless to my ears though and while I can enjoy the technical playing on the album from a musicians point of view, the lack of emotion and power becomes a big issue in the end. It´s not a bad album as such and there´s a chance others might feel emotionally touched, but as I said above "A Sense of Change" leaves me rather cold and I feel like I´m stretching when I`m giving this album a 3.5 star (70%) rating.