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Rating:
8.8 |
Andromeda - Chimera
23 June 2006
01. Periscope
02. In The End
03. The Hidden Riddle
04. Going Under
05. The Cage Of Me
06. No Guidelines
07. Inner Circle
08. Iskenderun
09. Blink Of An Eye
Andromeda's fourth album - that is, if you want to count Final Extension which most Andromeda fans will - marks the first album with bassist Fabian Gustavsson, a jazz influenced musician fresh out of music school. Songs like Periscope and In the End set up Chimera nicely progressive metal wise with slight power metal influences. I personally feel that this album is slightly more commercial. They might have been pressured by their new label to do this.
Fremberg returns with heavily theatrical vocals. The same keyboard tones and styles that created many a melody from II=I are also back. Chimera contains some poppy ballad tracks; Fremberg sounds very "emo" in many other tracks that come later on the album - an example here being The Hidden Riddle - making Chimera slightly more accessible, commercial or "neo-prog" in many places. This relates back to the argument that the new label contract might have pushed them into a slightly more accessible and less chaotic progressive sound. The album picks up in the middle and to the end with some mid-paced straight-forward progressive metal songs. Fremberg's voice here is more gruff and lower, sometimes with added production effects on songs like No Guidelines.
Many fans of the band complain that Andromeda have slightly lost their vision with Chimera. Others still think it's a very strong release with more of the same from past albums. The thing is that Chimera is very progressive and very well done. The problem is that Andromeda lacks in originality in this release, but makes up for it in the outstanding playing ability on every song. Time will tell with any new album in the future whether any new innovations occur in the band's overall sound.
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Performance:
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9 |
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Songwriting:
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9 |
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Originality:
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8 |
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Production:
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9 |
written by Kap'N Korrupt | 10.10.2006 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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Comments
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Users visited:
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great review, although i can't hear any "emo" in fremberg's voice. maybe i need to listen to it a few more times. and the new bass player is amazing, without a doubt.
favorite tracks - periscope, in the end, going under, iskenderum. |
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Kap'N Korrupt - 25.11.2007 at 01:46
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| Maybe he isn't as "emo" as I originally though because I just listened to the album and there are no tendencies of this... |
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haha, glad i could convince you otherwise. i'll admit he does get a little whiny at times, but i haven't heard him go into that crying "emo" scream.  |
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| Best Andromeda album. Periscope is one of my fav prog songs ever |
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| Scratches the surface of musical perfection. This truly is a grippping combination of metal, jazz and virtuoso technique. |
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