MONOLITH

Ethereal Architect is a technical progressive metal band from Austin/Texas - USA with 2 albums under their belt. The second offer from 2012 named simply Monolith is a serious piece of work in this genre. This sophomore release is solid as rock, really kick ass pieces, catchy as hell and top notch musicinship. Something that worth mentioning right from the start is the voice of Adam Contreras. Well he simply shines here, he has a very powerful tone, very elastic voice, he can sing in a very diffrent ways from deep moments to joyful parts, all vocal lines are to me jaw dropping, very good vocalist, in fact one of the best I've heared so far in prog metal zone. The pieces are very well crafted, full of unexpected twists and turns, the rhythmic section is killer. The album overall might be considered guitar driven type of prog metal, David Glass the guitarist is all over the place, having some spectacular moments, complicated passages for sure, but aswell some keyboards appear here and there also provided by David Glass. All musicians work in a perfect unison, awesome interludes between them with great inventive arangements - this is a team work for sure. Highlights for me, Mercury a very progressive tune from the album with sudden tempo changes and impressive vocal delivery, Revolution is another killer tune with blistering moments and mid tempo almost balladesque Obscure with nice smooth elegant vocal lines and great instrumental parts. All in all this is a very worthy album by this unfairly unnoticed band, Ethereal Architect is very talented outfit, one of the best in last years in this realm that didn't get so far the credits they desearve. I personaly love the album overall better then previous work, and have no complains about. Recommended for sure and easy 4 stars, really impressed. For fans of Suspyre, Communic from Denmark, etc