JOURNEY OF A ROUGH DIAMOND

Mind Key is an Italian progressive metal band.You can hear many varied influences in their music,from Dream Theater and Symphony X to bands like Deep Purple and Toto.Journey of a Rough Diamond is a fine debut,featuring complex songs with many tempo changes,astounding guitar work,great keyboard playing,and an incredible ryhthm section and soaring Labrie-esque vocals.Versatile guitarist Emanuele Colella frequently switches styles,from metal to fusion to blues,making it seem very easy.Drummer Andrea Stipa,as one reviewer of this cd has said,would do Portnoy proud.And vocalist Marco Basile has a very wide range,but has since been replaced with Aurelio Fierro.Two of the standout tracks for me are "Lord of the Flies",based on the William Golding book and the epic "Waiting for the Answer",which contains all of this groups trademarks of complexity,brilliant technique and melody.4 stars and highly recommended for prog metal fans