SECOND LIFE SYNDROME

This is my first review on progarchives, although I've been following the site for a looong time and I've read many, many great reviews here. I hope I'll contribute to this great site myself.

I'll do song by song review with fragmentary rates which will make the final rating.

1. After - An intro-like-song that leads us into the album nicely. You could hear vocal layers with oriental, hypnotic motives. 3,5/5

2. Volte-Face - Great lead-in track, which erupts suddenly, then there's an interesting bass line. Not as good as The Same River from their debut, but in a similar manner. 4/5

3. Conceiving You - One of the most melancholic and beautiful ballads ever created. Perfect melody line and a heart-catching guitar solo make it a perfect song. 5/5

4. Second Life Syndrome - A masterpiece. Everything fits in perfectly, the vocals are simply stuning and the guitar solos could last forever. 5/5

5. Artificial Smile - my least favourite song on the album, still rocking, but nothing special compared to other pieces. 3,5/5p>

6. I Turned You Down - sad, beautiful song with nice lyrics, which are full of regret. If I could turn back time - that's basically the lyrical concept of this song. 4,5/5

7. Reality Dream III - that's the best instrumental piece from the group of Reality Dream I, II, II - really technical with contribution of all band members. 5/5

8. Dance With The Shadow - one of my favourite prog-metal pieces of all time. It has it all: melody, mood and pace alternations, heaviness, complex compositional concept, technical abbilities are also shown by band members. 5/5

9. Before - the song finishes the album in a good, strong way. The song calms us down after an intense, sometimes severe, but enjoyable ride. 4/5

All in all a great album with fantastic, strong songs, interesting lyrical content, very good musicianship and quite well produced for an progressive metal (but not as flawless as Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet for example).

The band has a handicap with me, cos they're from my city (Warsaw). I've been following their career almost from the beginning and I'm proud that they came up with such a great album. They are giving phenomenal concerts also, I've seen them 4 times already and every single one was better than the previous.

Overall rating: 4,39/5 which rounds up to 5 stars on my personal scale

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