A little after the Argentines of 'Bastian Per', it's the turn of the Swedes from 'Seventh Dimension' who impressed me with their last album 'The Corrupted Lullaby', to release a new album, 'Black Sky', this time much shorter and which offers us a metal accessible progressive which can be similar to formations like 'Threshold' or 'Sons Of Apollo' and who still haven't had the recognition they deserve. Indeed, this last baby is a digest of what I like in this style of music with original progressive alternating all kinds of atmospheres and with melodic lines that we appropriate quite easily.
The instrumental introduction 'Premonition' which sets the scene with a memorable melody, is really integrated into the title 'Bad Blood' which reminds me of 'Threshold' with many changes of tempo and a unifying chorus that returns between each part instrumental, then, 'Kill the Fire' continues with a very beautiful vocal performance by 'Nico Lauritsen' who adapts his voice according to the intensity of the moment, the instrumental parts punctuated by the saturated guitar riffs being very original and whose last minute is quite remarkable with a magnificent interlocking guitar and keyboards solo. After these two energetic tracks, 'Resurgence' begins in a fast rhythmic then, the sung section brings remarkable breaks in tempo, the instrumental parts being imaginative and putting forward an impressive rhythm section which plays cat and mouse with the instruments. electric, then, 'Falling', softens the subject with a quieter atmosphere, between ballad and mid-tempo, the second part offering an atmospheric 'Floydian' instrumental part. We then attack the 13 minutes of the two parts of the eponymous track of the album with first of all 'Assembly', which shows all the instrumental know-how of these artists and which serves as a sort of rich introduction to the long development 'Into The Void' which takes us on an exotic journey through multiple soundscapes which overlap with each other and which has a very beautiful sung epic final which falls with a few piano notes. The short 'As the Voices Fade', which follows, is a beautiful melancholy transition for the last long development 'Incubus' which sums up all the richness of this album with an inventive composition that merges different styles of progressive by alternating sweetness and energy and which has a remarkable final.
In summary, the Swedes of 'Seventh Dimension' are releasing a quality album with everything you want to find in a modern progressive metal album and which will certainly be much easier to digest than the previous one which exceeded 2 hours which will certainly allow 'Black Sky' to reach a wider audience loving a progressive metal which, even if it remains very dense and requires several plays, remains very affordable thanks to accessible melodic lines... | |
