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DPRP - Dutch Progressive Rock Pageseptember 2009 Ulysses first showed up in 2001 with their mini CD Eclectic which they recorded in one day. This was followed up in 2003 when they released there first real album, Symbioses. Their music is progressive rock leaning slightly towards metal on The Gift Of Tears, with the focus more on the progressive side. On their previous album their vocalist received some critisism, however this new album features new vocalist Michael Hos. Also a new bass player, Casper Kroon, whilst the rest has remained the same - Ron Mozer on keyboards, Sylvester Vogelenzang de Jong on guitar and René van Haaren on drums. As you can see from the album details above Ulysses is from the Netherlands. So the music is progressive rock with a small aspect of metal hidden inside, complex compositions with many changes and as you can tell from the length of the songs typical progressive rock songs. On this album Ulysses tried to get a perfect balance between the music, the lyrics and emotion. Family Portrait is telling us how we can feel more sympathy for each other by listening to one another. The opening of the album gave me a bit of a shock, the keyboards are mixed badly and after that the double bass drum did not predict anything good. Thankfully it was only the first part and the music rapidly turned to the better, so do not judge this album by it's start. Family Portrait rocks from start to finish. Guardian Angel has more transitions to mellow parts and has many fine keyboard solos. Numerous time changes and very melodic, this is exactly what I like, true progressive rock. Lost is a more dramatic song with a leading role for the piano. At times the vocals float in the bad mixed sound, too bad. How Much More is the first of the two epics on this album and it really rocks. Just like Guardian Angel this song is true progressive rock. Again many keyboard solos but on this song there is more place for heavy guitar riffs which make Ulysses a bit more powerful than standard progressive rock. Silence Of The Night is a mellow piano intro to The Gift Of Tears. In the title song the vocals are dramatic and have been given a distorted effect. This is good for improving the sound, it is more cohesive. The final piece is the second epic song on this album and it tells the story about a girl called Anat who died forom a brain tumor. Given the topic of the lyrics it is not surprising that this song sounds dramatic. Anat is a great song with many mood changes and beautiful melodic music. Ulysses has created a good album in the true spirit of progressive rock. The compositions are very good and the music in combination with the real-life story lyrics make this a very interesting album. The negative part about this album is the quality of the production. The vocals are not mixed in very well and the overall sound is just acceptable. I would rather have this than to have a perfectly sounding album that is completely soulless, but this is definitely a missed opportunity. Remixing this album would give it a much higher rating, I dare to say it would have been amongst the best of 2008. Conclusion: 7 out of 10 EDWIN ROOSJEN www.dprp.net

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Date: 12-06-2009
Language: UK

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Fireworks Magazine (pdf)
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Language: NL

Rockarea.eu
Date: 27-03-2009
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Heavyhardes.de
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Noord Hollands dagblad (image)
Date: 12-11-2008
Language: NL