ATOMIXYNERGY

There is no doubts that Atomixynergy is extreme talented and knows the use of their instruments. Their music is melodic progressive metal with some nods towards neo-prog, heavy prog, post rock and AOR. Actually, this album is somewhere between progressive metal and heavy prog. The use of Hammond organs is very heavy prog'gish. The band also throws in some curve balls like some jazz stuff too. This album, Vacuum, is by no means a revolution which will change everything in the music scene. But the band has something good going on. They even have their own identity in their search for a sound which will give them their own niche in this overcrowded market.

The problems is the lack of any really great songs. The album ticks over and I nod approvingly at everything here. But there is not really one song here I would label as a great song. But as a debut album, Atomixynergy has set out their stall and I am sure we will hear a lot more from this band in the future. A future which may be theirs if they continues down this road.

This album is highly recommended to every prog metal fan here and it is a great shame and injustice that I am the first who has reviewed this album. The prog metal fans here should follow suit.

3 stars

Did you know that Progressive Metal sub-genre is currently the largest section here on Prog Archives? More than 10% of our beloved website consists of Progressive Metal content and that doesn't even include Tech/Extreme Prog Metal nor Experimental/Post Metal! Even everyone's favorite Symphonic Prog only takes up 7% of the site's content. Do these figures suggest anything about the current trend of Progressive Music? No, since I happen to see myself as an open-minded individual who enjoys good music whenever he hears it with almost no preconceptions added to the experience. Therefore I often manage to enjoy all type of music as far as it sounds genuine enough to my ears.

You might be wondering what those previous lines had to do with the review of Atomixynergy's marvelous EP? Well, let's combine the two major messages of of those sentences and find out! First off, the Progressive Metal genre is huge! I doubt that bands like Fates Warning, Dream Theater and Queensrÿche realized just how big it would get when they emerged onto the metal scene in the late '80s/early '90s with their ground-break new approach to music making. Still, with every step forward comes a streak of both successful and unsuccessful imitators that have, by now, literally flooded the Progressive Metal market with their material. This ultimately makes the search for new undiscovered gems feel like searching for a needle in a haystack! Trust me when I say that I get to hear a lot of generic metal music while working with the Prog Metal Team here on Prog Archives.

I was quite surprised with my own reaction to To Reflect Human Patterns after hearing it for the first time. On surface, it sounded almost like the biggest Progressive Metal cliché EP that I've heard. Still, there was a certain quality to these compositions that made me interested in digging deeper into these four tracks. Happiness Like A Mask starts off as if it was a section of a lengthy epic multi-part composition and almost reminds me of the Another World-section of Dream Theater's epic A Change of Seasons. This 5+ minute composition really brings back the memories of time when multi-part Progressive Metal compositions actually sounded as such and not just as disjointed medleys. Luckily the band is just warming up since the next track just so happens to be a 13 minute mini-epic!

Proiezioni Astrali is clearly meant to be the highlight of this EP and it doesn't really disappoint unless you start comparing it to the rest of the material. I love the way this piece evolves from one section to another and the melodies are beautiful beyond words. On top of that we have a nice space-sounding interlude that begins towards the sixth minute which then proceeds into a majestic concluding section. Unfortunately I lack a certain punch to this whole composition which is ultimately the reason why I don't enjoy this track as much as the rest of the material.

Universe Without A Fence is a gorgeous ballad that will, most likely, make all other ballads pale in comparison. The vocalist does sound a bit too much like Daniel Gildenlöw here, but it ultimately doesn't bother me as much as say when Vangough did it all throughout Manikin Parade! Eyes Too Blind starts off in a similar quite fashion but eventually returns to the grand themes that were previously explored on Proiezioni Astrali. What an amazing way to conclude an album!

The only real complaint I can think of is that the band's vocalist does have a heavy Italian accent but at least it has a charming ring to it compared, for example, to Sky Architect. It never alienates me from the beautiful music depicted on this EP and that's all that counts! In conclusion, if you enjoy epic symphonic Progressive Metal then this is as good as it will get and you are bound to keep this album on repeat for weeks to come. At least that's what happened to me!

***** star songs: Happiness Like A Mask (5:33) Universe Without A Fence (5:51) Eyes Too Blind (5:01)

**** star songs: Proiezioni Astrali (13:05)