I've just heard MINDFLOW's 2006 work "Mind over Body" and I have to say, I'm at the same time impressed and disappointed.

I'm impressed (favorably) because the band is certainly a terrific, outstanding, amazing group of musicians. The vocals are nothing to write home about but the guitars and keys are just great. The level of playing that Hidalgo and Spada can achieve is demonstrated by the complicated textures, solos and the variety of styles that they go over in this release. No doubt the band is one of the great surprises in musicianship in the metal world. Even better to know that they come from Brazil, a land that has given us good power-prog-metal acts before (ANGRA), even though MINDFLOW is much more progressive in a typical way.

I'm impressed by the production values. Not only is the recording perfect and the sound of the disc something to really applaud; the band has also made an effort to provide its fans with one of the best booklet/cases, with beautiful artwork and even a whole song (and the album's concept) put into comic in a second booklet. The band takes the fans and its art seriously, and I really like that.

But there are some dissapointing elements to this album. And I find them where most people find this album's strengths: in the complexity of the music. I've given my opinion a million times: I love to hear technical displays of prowess and intricate structures, but not at the expense of coherence. I've hear Mind over Body more than a few times and I still think that it's very difficult to grasp any kind of structure in some of the songs. The musicians (very good nes, I say it again) lose themselves in change after change after change, never allowing a song to just, well, flow (pun intended).

Now, it can be said that some of the genre's best moments have arrived thanks to challenges to the traditional structures and to completely difficult-to-get songs. I agree. But I can't sense any sense of symphonism here: this is not something like Close to The Edge; I also can't sense any multi-sectionism a la Supper's Ready or A Change of Seasons (metallic rhapsodism?). I can't even detect the broad, far-reaching maps of many post-metal songs; what is even more deciding, I can't find riff to riff structures like in DEATH. Just to focus in the genre, PAIN OF SALVATION (wihout a doubt the band MINDFLOW tries to emulate) has never failed to have a sense of coherence, structure, song-craftmanship. Yet MINDFLOW has. And that is what ultimately dissapointed me about them.

The music? Complex progressive-metal with touches of DREAM THEATER, QUEENSRYCHE, but mostly, PAIN OF SALVATION. At times the band sounds too much like Gildenlow's creature. But without the art of the song that the Swede masters possess.

All in all, a good, if flawed album, by a band that I'm sure can very easily deliver a 5-star album in the future, should they choose to let the music flow and save some of the complexity for future releases.

I think this album could've been so much better.

For me, here the parts are more than their sum. Let's face it: when you have the guitarist/composer of SHADOW GALLERY, the drummer/vocalist/composer for SPOCK'S BEARD and one of the great metal voices around, you think you will get an outstanding feat of musical achievement. Or at least a very original, entertaining album.

Sadly, for me, this is not the case with AMARAN'S PLIGHT's debut album "Voice in the Light". I've read reviews saying that this disc is one of the best -if not THE best- of 2007. I disagree, completely. I think this is one of the big disappointments of 2007, not because it's bad (it's actually decent, even good), but because it could've been so much better.

Let's start with the musicians: Barabas shines on the bass; D'Virgilio gives a solid performance on drums, if nothing truly extraordinaire, but he keeps it low-profile. These two give what we would expect them to give us on such a release. It's the other two who don't quite deliver the goods. First, master guitarist Gary Wehrkamp plays a very different style from the one he uses in his main band (SHADOW GALLERY). That's a good thing, for we want diversity, but also a bad thing, for we expect to be dazzled with something, if not incredibly technical, at least original to make up for the lack of the usual wizardry. That doesn't happen. The guitar playing here is quite traditional, by-the-rules, nothing to remember. We didn't expect (nor want) "Tyranny Part II" or something like that, as this is another band, with different members; but we were hoping to hear some really new ideas and those wishes were not entirely fulfilled.

But the other problem that I found in the musicians it's one I would never expected to find: D.C. Cooper didn't convince me. Yes, one of my favorite vocalist in all prog-metal wasn't able to take me to the places he has been able to. It's like his voice doesn't quite match up with the style of this music (not that it actually HAS a particular style; more on that later). I have always thought of Cooper's tone as perfect for obscure characters, or for struggling heroes, form something/someone larger-than-life. Here, in Voice in the Light, his over-powering voice is too much for the character of the music and too dark and deep for the very light, sunny atmospheres we travel in this album. Cooper was perfect in ROYAL HUNT (specially in "Paradox"), magnificent in collaborations like EXPLORER'S CLUB or even with Wehrkamp in SHADOW GALLERY's "Tyranny" (in "New World Order"). But here he's not. He's just another singer.

Talking about style, that's another thing that bothered me about this release. I can't seem to fit this music in any particular genre. Not that good music should be so easy to categorize. But one thing is to transcend genre-boundaries due to unique, innovative music, and another to just lack a distinct character. At times this sounds very "prog-metal-ish", at times it sounds a little like SPOCK'S BEARD, at times it's neo-prog, at times regular rock, but, I insist: not in the sense that it's mixing elements of these genres, but just jumping from one to another between songs. It lacks definition, I don't know what it is.

There are some very good moments with good melodies and interesting ideas, but overall, the experience lacks punch, lacks impact. I have to add that, for me, the story also lacks effect. The tragic story of a man dying of cancer who was in love with a woman could've been better served. It lacks direction, it turns and twists without clarity, not to mention the fact that it makes the album a very sad experience and, even more sadly, not for musical reasons. Yes, let me explain: if we have a sad concept, and the music is also sad, we're enjoying a great piece of art, which transcends our emotions; but when the music makes no impressions on us and it's only the written story that gets to us, we know the album hasn't quite delivered.

All in all, I will give it 3 stars just for the music, as it has good moments and Cooper still manages to shine here and there. But having the names at hand in mind, I can't help feeling disappointed. I would've been more happy to give this album 3 stars if it had been released by 4 unknown musicians. But this is D'Virgilio, Barabas, Wehrkamp and Cooper here; this is just barely a 3.

I've read the same comment many times when time comes to speak about prog-metal bands: "oh, this band is just a DREAM THEATERclone", "another one of the endless herd of DT clones", and as much as I tried, I never could find that one album that truly made me believe the same experiment that generated Dolly the Sheep was repeated with the New York band.

That is, of course, until I heard the voice of a lemur, disguised as a prog-metal band.

I have a serious problem with LEMUR VOICE: it sounds too much like DT, like "Awake"-era DT, to be precise. The cloning accusations really are on target this time, and I've begun some research to find out how someone got ahold of DT's ADN and used it to create this group.

The band LEMUR VOICE is no more, it has ceased to exist long ago. So there would be no point in me worrying about future releases. But, in case you're interested in buying this cd, I'll say a few words about the music.

This is really a copy/paste exercise. The musicians are very capable, and can surely play their instruments with skill and virtuosity. The problem is that the music itself is not that interesting. As I said before, it's very much reminiscent of "Awake", but without the inspiration, the melodies, the energy, and, especially, without the originality of that legendary release. Even though the songs aren't that bad, there's nothing new to listen to here. It also lacks punch; it's like the musicians are playing trying to emulate their favorite band but without even leaving his heart on the floor for that, without breaking a sweat, they seem like they were playing by inertia. And the singer? Well, he's just not good. His voice sounds like if FATES WARNING's Ray Alder had suddenly lost 10 years and also 10 pints of blood, as the delivery is bland, monotonous, bleak, lineal. Completely fuel-less.

About the songs, all sound about the same. The first track is the better one with vocals, and for sure the second one (the instrumental "Akasha Chronicles") is the best in the album. Actually, if they had recorded a purely instrumental album with more tracks like that one, it would have been a pleasant experience and worthy of maybe 3 or 4 stars. But, as it is, these two tracks barely save the album from 1 star status.

Stay away from the Lemur.

This is recommended for ultra-hardcore fans of DT that want ALL of their music to sound almost exactly like DT.

It's a bit of an irony that, what ultimately killed the lemur was its voice.

I really don't know the reason behind the Dutch band's disappearance from the music world. But if the reason has anything to do with the band never getting a good record deal or never becoming famous at least within the progressive-metal community, I think the mediocre vocals of its singer have a lot to do with it.

The worst thing about the demise of LEMUR VOICE is that, actually, they were starting to become a truly competent and original prog-metal band. Here we had a group of musicians of the highest talent. An excellent drummer who was also the main lyrics writer for the outfit; a very skilled guitarist who was showing signs of extreme originality, with very unique riffs and ideas; a skilled bassist who played very interesting bass lines; a talented keyboardist who matched the abilities of the rest of the band. All of them were outstanding musicians, and that fact was starting to finally show in "Divided."

"Insights", the band's previous album, was interesting musically but failed to impress this listener with its lack of memorable songs and originality. LEMUR VOICE was very close to a DREAM THEATER clone in that record. But in "Divided", we can hear much more original music. While the influences are still there, there is a new, fresh sound that permeates the disc, with grunge and 70's-hard-rock overtones that add to the experience. The solos are better, the riffs and licks are way better. The songs have more interesting structures and everything seems to start to fall into place. The band manages to create songs that, though not immediately accessible, are much more memorable than some of the bland tracks in their debut. Just take a look at the excellent title-track or the very good "New Yanini" and you'll hear hints of greatness. The band even manages to pull out a decent (if a little awkward, especially in the jazz-styled chorus) Michael Jackson cover (of one of the pop legend's best songs, Beat It).

But lemurs can't sing. At least in nature they usually can't. And nowhere can one find better evidence to support that statement than in this album. If in "Insights" the vocals were slightly annoying, here in "Divided" they border on the atrocious. Of course, there is a reason: in the debut, the music was weak, therefore the vocals were just another weak element; but here, with much better sounds, the awful vocals fall so far behind the music in terms of quality that the contrast is too high and the image gets much more distorted. Van Der Loo's voice is too high, but that's not the biggest problem. It's too energy- less, too dead. It would seem that the singer was really bored recording this album because he really appears to be singing with absolute no conviction, no strength, no desire to reach anything but the moment when he could walk out of the studio.

And that's what kills this album in the end. The rating would have been higher if the vocals matched the quality of the music (I would go so far as to say that with an excellent singer this record could've gotten a 4.5 from me). But with what we have, "Divided" is just a tad above its predecessor, and it gets a 3.

This band doesn't exist anymore. And when one hears the vocalist singing, one stops wondering why...

Another case of an unknown masterpiece.

SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD, an American group nobody knows about, has delivered in a grandiose way with their 2006 album "Intelligent Design", a brilliant album full of great musicianship, innovation, creativity, and entertainment.

We can call this music progressive-metal, but not your typical DT-style prog-metal. We hear some elements of traditional bands, but mostly we hear an eclectic mixture of all kind of different influences, which combine to create a distinct, unique sound. We hear avant-garde elements, we hear some tech-metal touches here and there, we can detect musical passages that sound like DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA but also moments when we're reminded of ARCTURUS. There's some thrash metal in here, too, with many fast riffs and pounding rhythms. Some alternative rock has managed to infiltrate the music as well. As you can see, a complete blend of many colors in the metal spectrum. But the influences we could say are the most important in SDS's sound are definitely two: PAIN OF SALVATION, but even more, FAITH NO MORE. Yes, SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD's sound owes a lot to both Gildenlow's outfit and to Patton's deceased group.

A very important element in SDS's music is the quality of the musicians and specially of their singer. All the instrumentalists are more than capable, showing their skills but never falling for the easy show-off. But it's "The White Swan" who steals the show. Here we have a vocalist capable of switching styles with ease and tremendous creativity. He can go from a melodic, clean voice to a black-metal styled, high- pitched growling in a matter of seconds, in both cases managing to deliver a very compelling vocal performance. Again, his main influences are the same as in the overall sound of the band: Gildenlow, but mostly, Patton. It's his way of phrasing the words, the rhythms, and sometimes also the tone that remind us of that great singer of FAITH NO MORE and MR BUNGLE fame. "The White Swan" doesn't stop here though; he can also sound a little grungy (we can detect a hint of ALICE IN CHAINS in one of the songs) and, in the last track, he evokes Jonathan Davis, of much-maligned nu-metal band KORN. Yes, the guy has quite a range of possibilities in his voice.

The music goes from the burlesque to the violent, from the atmospheric to the grotesque, from the cold mountains of China to the exaggerated joke of a circus; there's anger and insanity, there's laughter and even some light; we travel from the traditional to the modern, from progressive-metal to thrash metal to space-rock to avant-garde.

One of the best cds of 2006, a year when many lost gems like this album or DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA got buried underneath a pile of over-hyped records. It's a shame that this disc has been self-released. Let's hope SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD is allowed to give us their talents with a label that can guarantee that more people will be exposed to great music like this.