(progressive metal) Fragile Vastness - Excerpts... - 2002, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

I never imagined myself sitting and listening to a Progressive Metal band, since I usually dislike that genre. But that was before this disc from Fragile Vastness fall into my hands. "Excerpts..." is the debut album of this awesome Greek band that mixes progressive metal with ethnic elements, jazz and latin music and even some operatic vocals, creating a deadly mix of the most innovative sound I've heard so far! If that's Progressive Metal then I should definitely change my point of view towards that genre!

The first thing that drew my attention was the amazing album work of the album. And I'm not talking just for the front cover! The whole booklet is exceeding creativity, artistic intelligence and amazing design, creating one of the best album arts I've ever seen! The images they've chosen represent in the best possible way the spirit of the whole album. I'm definitely proud for having this in my collection. Set<h> has once again created an amazing package for this release proving himself, worthy of making the suitable art work for every album he works for, either violent (in his other works) or peaceful and lovely images like the one I'm holding here.

I don't even know how to describe the sensation I'm listening to right now. You have to listen to this album to understand how I'm feeling. I can only say that is not like what I've heard before. These guys mix a variety of different musical styles, into metal, creating a nice music that favors the ears. It's neither aggressive nor violent, it's rather happy music with an uplifting feeling that you can listen at every hour no matter how tired you are, without bringing you a headache. Maybe it's the latin ingredients, maybe the relaxing effects of jazz or just the capability of those guys to program all those instruments and create this great mix. In this music, you can listen instruments like the Peruvian quenacho, the African djembe, the South-American bongos and of course the classic violins along with the standard metal equipment (keyboards included). As you can imagine it's something very interesting and you should definitely have a hearing on this. Another thing that makes this music amazing is the screaming metal-operatic vocals; this guy Zacharias Tsoumos is definitely the best man for this place, although he sometimes reminds me of Mark Vanderbilt from the early works of Kamelot. Also, it worth mentioning that the last song "Eye To Eye (Obliged To Suffer)" with its female vocals, could easily be a sole jazz song, being the perfect track for closing this music orientation...

I think I'll never grow tired of listening to this music; instead I'll start searching for more! This band has definitely big potential and with the suitable promotion they can become one of the leading bands in this genre. Every man who loves either jazz or latin or metal and he's open to new experiences, he must buy this masterpiece! Not download it! Buy it and both enjoy the great artwork and support these amazing musicians. If I could I'd rate this with eleven in the scale of ten! My congratulations both to the band and the label for producing this!

Zacharias Tsoumos - lead and backing vocals
Alex Flouros - electric and acoustic guitars
Evi Katsamatsa - piano and keyboards
Vangelis Yalamas - electric bass, percussion and laouto
Babis Tsolakis - drums
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Yiotis Kiourtsoglou - fretless bass
Tanya Nikoloudi - vocals, piano and keyboards
Ioanna Mitsoglou - drums, djembe and bongos
Themis Nikoloudis - violin
Javier Cadillo - quenacho
George Theodoropoulos - keyboards