PRICE O ZIVOTU

Alogia is the best power/progressive metal band from my country (Serbia), and this is their second release. And yes, it's MUCH better than first "Price O Vremenu" : better production, better and more mature song structure and much better singing from Nikola Mijic. I will compare them with Kamelot, Symphony X and Dream Theater with plenty of hard rock influences. Album is singed in serbian language wich might be exotic for those of you who's never listen to it - it sound's beautiful! Best songs are almost Evergrey-like "Novi Dan", "Trgovci Dusama", pop-oriented "Jos Samo Ovaj Put", crushin' "Putnik Na Raskrscu" etc. Only failure is the song "Ambis" and pointless instumentalization at the end of some songs. Album close better than original "What A Feeling" - it's sound's great in metal cloak! On the bonus disk we have another better than original song ("Gde Si U Ovom Glupom Hotelu") from the legendary Serbian rock band Riblja Corba wich also sound's great! So, at the end, I will recommend "Price O Zivotu" to everyone who loves aftermentioned bands and good power/progressive metal and hard rock music!

Okay, here is the follow-up to quite pleasant surprise debut Priče o vremenu . I was hoping the band will improve on things I found problematic, so let's see what has changed.

The biggest change is that there is no more resemblance with Symphony X. I still wouldn't call this an original style, but it's far from blind copying. Another very important difference is sound production, that has rapidly improved and is almost flawless now. So if you like clean sounding keyboard-driven progressive metal, this might be a good record to try.

Songwriting is still pretty strong, but I think I have caught several obvious filler songs that somehow disturb the overall atmosphere. It's not a crucial mistake, but still it is easy to notice. Other than those few songs, there are some very strong numbers like speedy Trgovci du?ama or the huge 10-minutes long complex progressive epos Metamorfoza.

So actually the only problem that is still persistent is the vocalist. I sense he has improved a bit, but his voice is still rather annoying in many passages that would be otherwise excellent. Or maybe I'm just a little biased - the guy might not be that bad, but with slightly better singer this could be a real masterpiece coming from Obscureland.

Anyway, this is still a very strong and surprising album, and all you power/prog fans all around the word are encouraged to check it whenever you have some free time :)

P.S. What a fine cover of Flashdance...What a Feeling / Love Theme [Instrumental] ! 4 stars is it.