PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

From Sweden came MAYADOME, in 1996 with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY,a very interesting and promissing prog metal band in the middle of the '90's!And this album had the effect of a bomb among other excellent albums released in the same period...I remember here bands like ,,,ALTURA...DALI'S DILEMA...HYDROTOXIN...EXISES...all gone now,unfortunatelly....What bringed new this album was a ferocious technicity combined with some very ambitious ideas and clever texts,all the amalgam resulted giving some pretty long songs and quite numerous moments of technical demonstration of the competent members of the band! PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is a long album of 72 minutes and of course,it's a little diluted,but in the end we realise that the compositions are outstanding ,most of all showing some amazing technique from the guys in the band!Double pedal rhythms provided by a monster drummer called TEDDY MOLLER-now in LOCH VOSTOCK, 2 inspired guitar players very good in solos and in rhythm passages too,an efficient bass player..and the weak link BJORN HOLMQUIST, a limited guy in his register,with a nasal voice and without great vocal capacities.Imagine an Ozzy Osbourne with a severe flu and throat problems!.I am sure,with a better vocalist,MAYADOME would have had other perspectives!Also,SHRAPNELRECORDS wasn't in it's best period there,the time of the guitar heroes albums was gone,the label were more orientated on blues and then was starting the new fusion sub label TONE CENTER! After this album Bjorn was replaced on NEAR LIFE EXPERIENCE by a better vocalist ,but the band sadly splitted shortly due some numerous label problems,lack of support and other things!Overall what remains is a strong album of aggressive prog metal,with some memorable instrumental interventions,in DREAM THEATER style-era METROPOLIS.Just hear the middle section of MERCENARY and TRIFLES,or NEW WAYS OF EXISTENCE ,for example,they are breathtaking!For an album of more than 70 minutes,100 % we find here 50 excellent -10 mediocre and 10 weak!So,it's quite good for a first shot.The sign of vauue and resistance in time,ot the quality of an album is the fact that each time when I made an audition of this album I got the same pleasant feeling I had a14 years ago...and that says a lot!! 4,5 STARS for a remarcable debut album!