NINE

Circus Maximus is a talented melodic prog power band from Norway. The first thing I noticed on Nine, having listened to their other albums, is the overproduced sound. One could only wonder how many filters instruments went through to achieve this glossy, teenage-friendly wall of sound. Album is about evenly divided between longer, proggier songs and radio-friendly hits about such mainstream things as standing your ground and tragic romantic love. But don't worry, this is still prog, and metal, so you'll get the usual fix of a punchy sound, different musical approaches (an electronic beat, a blastbeat, a bluesy guitar and so on) and instrumental candy.