THE ART OF NAVIGATING BY THE STARS

My first Sieges Even album. It showed me what a great band I had missed out on. SE prove that keyboards are not necessary to sound progressive, as the guitars, bass, and drums lead us through infinite twists and turns, to the point that I kept looking at my iPod to see if the track had changed. Alex and Oliver Holzwarth have recruited guitarist Markus Steffen and vocalist Arno Menses. Menses is my favorite Sieges even vocalist, and Markus is adept at feeding off the incredible rhythm of the brothers (it helps that he's played with them before).

Oliver has some of the most prominent bass in prog metal, which has the unfortunate tendency to bury bass guitars. His inventive playing is highly technical, but it is never showy. Likewise, Alex plays impossible rhythms and counter-rhythms without taking up space sonically. Markus plays with texture and feeling as opposed to seeing how many notes he can shove in a minute. Anso is really the first vocalist for Sieges Even to meld his voice with the instruments. He has a great sense of harmony, though he is a bit emotionless (not unusual for prog metal, so it's not too bad). The lyrics, as always are nothing special, but the concept ( seems to have upped the ante on the songwriting, so the words here are better than on previous efforts. The music reminds me of Fates Warning: incredible melodic and technical performances without dazzling displays of proficiency.

This is one of the better albums of 2005. Sieges Even are the kind of metal band you share with people who don't like metal. It has atmosphere and it is barely heavy enough to qualify as metal. If you like Fates Warning, the odds are good you'll like this album. It is the most emotional album in the band's discography, which is weird considering the coldness of Menses' voice (the harmonizing gives it a softer quality, though). Highly recommended

Grade: B