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Prog-nose.org - 25 april 2009
If you like real genuine prog, than this is your next purchase. Ulysses plays prog music which sounds old fashioned, especially due to the Hammond sound and the complex structures mixed with neo-prog with an eventual touch of progmetal. I can not compare Michael Hos, the new vocalist, with the previous singer, because I never heard their earlier recordings, but Michael surely is a great singer. Not the best of vocalists, but perfect for this kind of music. The album starts off with one of my favourites, “Family Portrait”, which opens a bit like “The Knife” (Genesis). A song of almost nine minutes showing how progressive rock should sound. The track is built around a riff, played together by the Hammond and the guitar. Sometimes the guitar sounds a bit heavy, but never too heavy to frighten away the progfans, or you must really have a ‘distortion allergy’. ;-) Every musician contributes perfectly to the progressive (metal) sound, which has an awesome production. “Guardian Angel” starts acoustic but rapidly changes into an awesome semi ballad. I’m not really fond of the backing vocals for this track, although they were perfect during the first song. As in every track on this album, the duelling between the guitar and keyboards is great. “Lost” is a beautiful ballad, mostly accompanied by piano, about someone with a memory loss. Again the song bursts into an electric ballad after some time. But the real ballad is the short “Silence of the Night” with only vocals and piano. “How Much More” and the title track are heavier and should appeal to progmetal fans, although prog fans with an open mind should also like this. “Anat” is the last piece, lasting fourteen minutes, about a little baby girl that died of a brain tumour. All emotions of the parents are passing by and make this song a very emotional masterpiece, full of variation. Ulysses celebrates their tenth anniversary with a great album, which is maybe a bit too heavy for the real die hard progfan, but it’s really worth trying to get to know this masterpiece. Danny Prog-nose.org |
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