COLLISION/FUSION/DIVISION

This is my first time listening to a full album by these Hungarian guys. I really don't know why I didn't hear about them before, but in my defence, I don't really listen to too much Hungarian music nowadays as the average quality dropped significantly in the last 20-or-so years. But after the first few songs I realized that I know this voice - the singer is Zoltan Batky or BZ from the cult favourite of mine, Stonehenge (remember Angelo Salutante album from 2001?). This album and the band overall is just fantastic. It's hard to be unique in prog in 2024, but they don't try to be math geniuses or shredders. Here we have songs, feelings, stories, accompanied by musical influences from various genres. The overall picture is somewhere between prog rock and metal, but there are beautiful acoustic parts with live (!!!) string orchestra, jazzy outtakes, even 70s funk - and they are not meaningless extras but parts that have meanings in the given song. The album starts with a 2-part song, the first is soundtrack-ish, like an intro, fading into a second part where Toto and Yes meets modern metal. From The Ashes is a bit on the Dream Theater track at first but it evolves into something that reminds me on Savatage. One of my favourites is Chains - starts as a modern, somewhat groove-oriented metal with growls even, but has strange twists and turns to jazz and Peter Gabriel-ish vibes, and then all the parts fade into one grand finale. The Sacrificial Lamb is a "prog hit" but the easy-listening (okay, in prog anyway) harmonies are accompanied with really heavy and meaningful lyrics. Slave starts like a Mastodon epic but turns into a great prog banger, and after it, the slow and (atnighti)flying songs follow. Mitosis is a cool moodsetter with Pink Floyd and Pain Of Salvation vibes, while Different Skies starts just like Queen's live rendition of Love of my Life, with only an acoustic guitar and beautiful vocals. Later the live symphonic orchestra comes in, a masterpiece again. The song goes on, fading into an instrumental (The Sky Above) with the aforementioned funk and a moody, old-school guitar solo. Finally, the other personal favourite, Distress is closing the album with its slowly building vibe - a great companion if you just want to reflect on your past. Love the great singing, deep lyrics, also the musicianship - you don't find too much individual "lookatmeiamgood" moments, everything is for the big picture, but with a lot of great elements, you can find new things with every new listens. I also love the production: more organic and natural, not the overprocessed, high-gain plastic that we have everywhere nowadays. A great record, I have to dig back to the history of the band (they have one more album and an EP). Higly recommended!