ALTER EGO

Constituted around both guitarists Andrej Henze and Ralf Gemein this is quite a fine band, hailing from the Düsseldorf region in Germany. The debut album has seen the light of day in 2008, thus in the meanwhile they are an experienced unity for sure. The instrumental department now encloses Björn Müschen on the bass and drummer Arthur Theuring, who are delivering a prolific rhythm backing overall. The new album 'Alter Ego' features nine powerful songs, including some Sieges Even appeal, but also a little Grunge touch that is surely comparable with the niveau of Soundgarden or Pearl Jam. Besides some irresistible, partially aggressive guitar work the vocal respectively voice arrangements are an outstanding trademark too, everything of these contributed by seven male and female guests in total here.

Vascular Access opens the race, full machine load right from the beginning. Gloria returns with interesting speech experiments, and then the New Dawn arrives with proper sing along qualities, just the first album highlight, when it comes down to it. For me this has definitely an appealing flow, where Parabolic Antenna is adding some Race Against The Machine appeal plus slight growls to the mix further on. I Know You Know excellently combines accessibility with a slight Math touch. While approaching the album's finale though the compositorial cleverness decreases a bit. Nevertheless, the album has a lot to offer during the course, especially for heavy prog fans. 3.5 stars.