THE SEVENTH SIGN

I had not great expectations to this album, since I paid only US$ 3.50 in a Brazilian web shop for a brand new CD!!! Fortunately, I discovered a good prog metal. Most songs are well performed and there are spaces for the musicians display some solos. My favorites are the title track, "The nightmare", "Pray for rain" and the proggiest "Tomorrow". Even the "radio friend" and simple songs as tracks 2 and 6 are well conducted, though not of my taste - indeed the guitar solo sections save these songs! The vocalist work is amazing, remembering sometimes Tony Martin (listen to tracks 1 and 5, for examples). Pleasant guitar and drums work. Variable drums in most tracks, proper to a prog taste and different to the repetitive and tedious drums in several metal bands. Perhaps with a specialist bass player the result would be better, since Torben plays only the bass basics. Keyboards are OK, without excesses and pleasant solos. Good addition to any prog fan, but non essential. ***½ stars.

When I bought this CD I had several months without acquiring any new prog disc on my collection, so I decided for a band to make this purchase worthwhile and so it was. I entered to a downtown music store where the salesman was a friend of mine and he knew exactly the kind of music I love. So, he played the first promo track of the album and so I could see it clear: This band had to be on my collection!!!

"Seventh Sign" from "Section A" is a really serious and brilliant album recorded by a prog metal band which has a particular and attractive style. They combine the force and purity of prog metal from late 90's with stunning superguitar solos, late heavy rock riffs and of course some elements of space rock. All of those elements combined in a metal background.

There is an significant presence on guest keyboards by Derek Sherinian on two tracks "The Seventh Sign" and "Nightmare" and by Gunter Werno on "Tomorrow". There is also a clear influence of Dream Theater by the times of "Images And Words" but with an even more solid metal force. The finesse and clearance of Andy Engberg's vocals combines in a perfect way with the explosive drums of Andreas Lill. The professional maturity of superguitarist Torben Enevoldsen, who is, without a doubt the main musician of the band, makes this a worthwhile addition to any prog metal collector. The production made by Enevoldsen himself makes his expressive and complex guitar arrangements seem to be especially predominant throughout music without breaking the balance of the rest of the band.

If you love prog metal from DT or Sun Caged or superguitars as Ciril Achards, Lars Eric Mattson this album is definitely a must. Section A is a band with real talent to make music of high quality; if you love complex guitar arrangements you will not be disappointed at all. So they deserve four solid stars from me, excellent addition to any prog collection!

Good progressions!!!

"The Seventh Sign" is the debut fulllength studio album by multi-national metal act Section A. The album was released in 2003 by Lion Music. The main man behind the project is Danish guitarist/ bassist/ Keyboardist Torben Enevoldsen. Torben Enevoldsen has released instrumental solo albums before creating Section A. He has hired a couple of Swedish guns for the project in Andy Engberg (Ex-Lion´s Share) on vocals and Andreas Lill on drums. Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Platypus, Planet X and solo) guests with a couple of keyboard solos on the title track and on the track "Nightmare". Derek Sherinian involvelment in the project was of course adverticed with a sticker on the jewel case back when I purchased the album. It´s a bit of a shame really as Sherinian´s contributions aren´t essentially what Section A are about. I guess it had good commercial value though.

The music is melodic and slightly progressive metal with an emphasis on melody and with lots of guitar solos from main composer Torben Enevoldsen. Expect traditional heavy metal/ power metal first and progressive elements second. The album is pretty consistent in quality. Torben Enevoldsen is a really skilled guitarist and composer too. He plays some really fast notes but leaves room for melody as well. His style reminds me a bit of the sound of Steve Vai (without ever reaching the masters touch of course). All tracks are powerful metal tunes featuring some pretty extravagant guitar solos and songs like the title track and "Riot" are some of the highlights.

The musicianship is really good. Andy Engberg is skilled vocalist and the drumming by Andreas Lill is tight but nothing out of the ordinary. Torben Enevoldsen´s guitar playing is IMO the main attraction on "The Seventh Sign" though.

The production is solid and professional sounding.

"The Seventh Sign" is in many ways an enjoyable album, but it´s safe to say Section A don´t invent the wheel. I could have wished for a bit less predictable compositions, more compositional depth and more will to experiment to avoid clichés. Section A are best when they are most progressive. A 3 star rating is warranted.

The Seventh Sign from Section A is fairly vanilla prog metal with a good dose of hair metal vocals. When the first vocals that come out are a primal scream that would go well on a Dokken album, many may cringe a bit. Andy Enberg has a decent voice but he was born many years too late to take full advantage of it.

The music reminds me a bit of Symphony X but is a bit less heavy and not so technical. Main man Torben Enevoldsen plays guitars, bass and keys (with two guest spots for keys, one of which is Derek Sherinian). Enevoldsen also wrote all the music. And since he is the main man and wrote all the music, by golly he is going to give himself some over the top guitar solos. Many show off a heavy quotient of notes per minute and tend to be a bit samey after awhile. But the guy can certainly play. All this shredding leaves little room for much in the way of keyboards except for the guest spots on three songs. On Nightmare, Enevoldsen and Sherinian go to the DT well with a back and forth guitar/keyboard solo. The Spanish guitar makes an appearance on the almost 10-minute Tomorrow, probably the highlight of the album. Of course there is a two-minute long electric guitar solo squarely in the middle of it.

Section A has made a serviceable prog metal album here but as so often happens, the songwriting cannot keep up with the chops and you are left with an effort somewhere in the middle of the morass of metal offerings being foisted onto the buying public. An "A" for effort but only two stars for the complete package. Sorry guys.

3.5 realy

Section A is a progressive metal band from Denmark formed around multi instrumentalist Torben Enevoldsen. He gathered here on first album, aswell on second a bunch of great musicians , well known in this field. Released at Lion Music in 2003 the first album named The seventh sign is a typical album for this scene. Nothing over the top or excellent , but good with pleasent moments. The musicians involved here are as I said well known in prog metal like, Derek Sherinian and Gunter Werno on key from Vanden Plas and Kamelot, Andreas Lill on drums aswell from Vanden Plas, Andy Engberg behind the microphone from Book of Reflections and Lion's Share and of course the main man of the band Torben Enevoldsen. The music is good, without shineing, only in places, the excellent keys of Sherinian and Werno and the brilliant voice of Egberg make this album worth investigated. While the pieces are well developed, elaborated in manner of composing, with nice moments, Section A doesn't offer something truly solid in this field. For many this is usual prog metal album, with little acomplished moments, in a way I'm agree, they bring nothing new in this genre, but at least they sound good. The plus goes to the voice of Egberg, excellent vocalist, realy fits perfect here, and the keys, the rest are good, the guitar is ok , nothing realy impressive but good all the way. So, to me this first attempt to make some noise in prog metal succeded for Section A, memorable tracks are , the title track, with furious keys provided by Sherinian and great guitar chops, Pray For Rain and Tomorrow, the rest are ok. Definetly a good release in my book, who desearve 3 stars more like, 3.5. Worth some spinings if you are intrested in this genre but don't expect something realy impressive.

Section A's 'Seventh Sign' is a complex mix of hard rock fused with an aggressive blend of progressive arrangements that will your senses in a state of euphoric splendor. I was very impressed with Torben Enevoldsen's music genius. Especially his guitar playing. Very dynamic and energetic that at times reminded me of such players like, Tony MaCalpine and Shawn Lane. Though his playing may echo these great players, make no doubt Torben is definitely in a league all his own. As is evident on the title track that opens the CD. Between Torben's stellar guitar work, Andy Engberg's powerful vocals and Andreas Lill's precession drumming, it was obvious to me that this trio's chemistry was as tight as a glove. The musical arrangements on songs like, "Pray For Rain" and "The Man In The Mirror", simply blew me away. Every song on this CD has its own character and personality. 'Seventh Sign' is the kind of album that you put on and let its music take you where ever it wants to. Knowing that, when you finish listening, it was a musical experience that blew you away would love to take over and over again. They say first impressions are everything and my first impression of Section A is progressive rock trio that has taken the genre onto the next level. This one band that you will be hearing about it a lot in the years to come. They also say actions speak louder that words. Get your hands on Section A's, 'Seventh Sign' and experience what musical brilliance is all about for yourselves.