SAVE MY SOUL

Quite a good album from the German band Poverty's No Crime, Germany has no lack of quality progmetal bands. I can't believe I've never heard of these guys before; they've been around since 1991, but I was in diapers then, so that's excusable.

Save My Soul is PNC's sixth album, and it's quite different from the rest of their recent output. The guitars have a Maiden-ish tone to them sometimes when soloing, and Volker Walsemann's voice is much deeper than usual. The songs are a bit heavier too, but that doesn't make them any less good.

After a rather pointless intro track, the album actually starts with a bang with Systematic Chaos-era Dream Theater guitar acrobatics. The title track, and ''In The Wait Loop are two of the best cuts off of SMS. The former is driven by a repetitive, yet addictively enjoyable drumbeat, with Walsemann's oily vocals gliding above the band. The latter contains some attention-grabbing synths, along with a couple of Pink Floyd inspired breakdowns. The only flaw with Save My Soul is that a lot of the tracks are primarily heavy, with not enough soft sections. Other than that, fans of textbook progressive metal will be satisfied with this album.

What suprises me the most is how underrated is this band (and consequently this album)! I haven't listened to the other PNC albums, but this one, Save My Soul, is a very a good progressive piece. I can compare it to the 2007 amaran's plight album, not better but at its level. This album presents about 4 masterpieces: Open your Eyes (4.8/5), Save my Soul (5/5), The Key to creativity, a great ballad, (4.8/5) and Spellbound, one of progressive's best instrumental song (5/5). Then we got Break the Spell (4.5/5) a great concluding song. Then the final 4 songs are very pleasant. For who likes great melodic progressive music I recommend you to get this one, it deserves 4 stars.

From the good old Germany comes POVERTY'S NO CRIME,a typically German prog metal band!They have already some excellent albums releases,and this SAVE MY SOUL makes no exception!It's a correct and quite attractive album that will plenty satisfie only PNC fans and those who like prog metal with a modern touch!The production is excellent and there are some interesting ideas delivered by some talented musicians!I strongly believe that one of the aces of the band,if not the major one is the marvelous vocals produced by Volker Walsemann ,he is extremelly talented and has a particular voice,easily recognisable!Musically speaking,the album can be compared with other similar from bands like VANDEN PLAS,MAJESTIC and many others!What is quite dissapointing about POVERTY'S NO CRIME is the fact that they don't really explode on any album,the band is making the same mayonnaise with the same verified ingredients,but doesn't bring anything spectacular or positive on any new album!They prefere not to risk anything and in a way that's good,because the fans get what they expect fom PNC!All the songs are at the same level of creavity and inspiration,the musical structures are strong and well defined,the musicianship is high and the musicians performants!Inspired solos,great vocal lines and a solide rhythm section too!So,be prepared for something pleasant,nice and well done,but nothing more!3,5 STARS for something well done and satisfying for any typically European prog metal fan!

On their last album to date, these erstwhile proggy hard rockers metallized their sound even more. An attempt to appeal to a wider audience, maybe. It's not THAT heavy. The vocalist is too pleasant and music too rooted in classic rock for that. I could call it dark power metal maybe. Another example could be Evergrey.

Songs here are more or less evenly divided between these dark power moments (eg, open your eyes, end in sight) and more proggy numbers (from a distance, in the wait loop, break the spell). Also a ballad and an instrumental are thrown in for good measure, but they are, in my opinion, inferior to their analogues on the previous album Chemical chaos (acoustic Access denied and Terminal Trip).

Still, the genius of this excellent but underrated band is that every song contains a memorable hook from guitars, keyboards or vocals.