martindavey87 Like a lot of German progressive metal bands, Anguish didn't stick around long enough to make much of an impact or to gain any kind of recognition. Which is a shame, because 'Symmetry', their second and last album is pretty decent.

While I'm under no illusions that a German prog metal group called "Anguish" were destined to become stadium headliners, I do think it's a shame this band didn't stick around, as the potential is evident on this record that this band could have come up with some pretty good stuff, given time to develop and mature, of course.

Typical with the genre, this album is full of complex compositions and odd time-signatures. However, I like that Anguish don't focus too much on virtuoso musicianship and have a more "song-heavy" style, with lots of emphasis on keyboards. Some great examples can be heard on tracks such as 'N.E.W.', 'Dreaming', 'Obsidian Lies' and the title track.

'Symmetry' may seem like another generic prog metal release, and in all fairness it mostly is, but that doesn't make it a bad album. If you can find it cheap, give it a chance, and discover for yourself that it's definitely a worthy addition to any collection.

Time Signature Maze of metal...

Genre: progressive metal

"Symmetry" by German progressive metal act Anguish is their second and last album. Published in 2002, it seems inspired by Fates Warning and Dream Theater a long with the genre of symphonic power metal in general.

This album may strike some as a run-of-the-mill traditional progressive metal album with a bunch of standard tracks on it. And perhaps that is the case, but I think that the songs on this album are most solid and they do contain some interesting twists and turns without ever reaching the level of ridiculous technicality. I think that "Symmetry" can be compared to the generic Symphony-X style album but with most of the cheesiness of Symphony-X being absent.

While I think that "Symmetry" is actually a good album, my problem is that the keyboards are too dominant - both in terms of volume (the kind of obscure the guitar) and in quantity. It is not that I have a problem with keyboards in metal, and I think that Marion Nießner actually does some cool stuff (I especially appreciate how she uses a lot of 80s sounds in many of her keyboard solos).

I would recommend this album to fans of traditional progressive metal, and I think that fans of power metal and traditional metal might also like it.