ARTEM ILLUSIO

Arteim Illusio are a progressive metal band that hail us from Switzerland. Their S/T album (that is reviewed here) is their debut, The singer Max Morton and guitar player (one of their guitar players) Ursin Camenisch has/had been involved in different bands, and the rest of the crew are ex-Satöry guys (never heard that band before). The singer Max's band named Morton is said to be doing heavy/power metal music, which is always a good asset that can be transferred to the prog metal domains; in the traditional sense, prog metal is nothing more/different than heavy metal that is more sophisticated, and perhaps a bit more experimental.

The music we here hear is really perfect and everything about it is neatly and very well done. The singer shines on this album too brightly though. Really, he has a perfect intonation, a wide range of the voice and he delivers the singing parts tremendously powerfully. His colour of the voice is also delightful. There are also some growling type of vocals here, and they really don't sound outplaced or "annoying" (at least to my ears). I don't know if the main singer performed those parts too, but it doesn't matter, honestly. He surely seems versatile enough to perform both clean and "harsh" vocals, even if it was not him on the latter. My biggest kudos goes to that guy: Max.

The instrumentation on this album is solid. This work does not include any sort of musical "wankery", but there are some parts that clearly manifest the capabilities of all the members of the band. Plainly, there's nothing pretentious that is heard here. I love how the drum parts were well-written and measuredly played, how the bass player performed his task impressively, and not without shining in some striking moments (listen to the opening song of the album to witness those eerie and exciting basslines). The riffage is pretty good, and has a real "heavy" feel to it; and withal the guitar solos satisfy and impress.

For sure, lots of bands crossed my mind while listening to their music, but I really don't very much like to talk about the influence thingies. Unless you're an innovator and/or a real genius, this is the standard of being a musician. Anyway, I loved how the final song of the album was influenced by some Swedish death metal music. But hey, despite of some of its harsh leanings, this is your music if you like prog metal bands such as Vanden Plas, Pagan's Mind; or perhaps even early Haken and Dream Theater.

I'm eagerly waiting for their prospective offerings!