CRIMSON SKIES

Have you noticed that Sweden is the land of progressive music especially during the 90's and 00's era? There are so many bands coming out from this land including Cloudscape, Wolverine, The Flower Kings, Pain of Salvation and so many more. Cloudscape is another band in the vein of heavy side of progressive music. From the outside I would consider that the music of Cloudscape is not really progressive, there are not so many curved lines in terms of composition and structure. In terms of performance, they are good musicians who know how to cook a good music.

The opening track "Shapeshifter" how good and powerful their composition is. It starts with pulsating keyboard followed with the blast of drums, bass, and guitar to accompany vocal. The guitar solo is stunning especially when it's combined with keyboards at the back. "Shadowland" sounds to me like having a Moslem Prayer's call "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) at the start of the track in loop sound, followed with metal music. "And Then the Rain..." calms down the music with a medium tempo opening / intro part featuring nice guitar work and riffs that accompany vocal. There are not many breaks or changes in mood of this track, similar with the first two tracks.

The next two tracks "Take the Blame" and "The Last Breath" are in the similar vein. But when it reaches track 6 "Psychic Imbalance" it surprises me as the opening part is ambient psychedelic followed with music with fast tempo in the vein of progressive metal. "Hope" represents the symphonic exploration of the band without sacrificing their main competence as progressive metal expert. The symphonic nuance flows to the next track through wonderful opening part "Breach In My Sanity".

Do not expect something truly progressive from this album even though this is a good album by Cloudscape. Fans of Evergrey, Royal Hunt