Chimera [Import]

Andromeda returns with yet another stellar album. It has been 3 to 4 years since II=I was released. I am speechless after listening to Chimera over and over again.. It consumes me entirely.. Andromeda succeeded once more with their technical proficiency of their musical instruments. The band is better ever than before... This time Andromeda has recruited a fifth member to make this new album an album that surpasses everything else they have ever done before... The inputs of an additional member has contributed to this amazing powerful album. The mastery of melodies, dynamics, heaviness, technics, compositions, solo etc.... shines out. You'll be hooked listening to Chimera zillions of times once you put the disc in your cd player. It has yet to leave my player for as long as I could remember... A fantastic come out from Sweden's Premier Progressive Metal Band: ANDROMEDA.

Ok so far I have written two reviews already for this release within the review guidelines and neither have been posted on here, why? Hopefully this will be third time lucky.

Look for Andromeda history in the reviews posted for their other releases. So the Swedish progressive metal outfit Andromeda released their third (and most recent at this point) album and second with most band members contributing to the writing process (their first album 'Extension of the Wish' being written entirely by guitarist Johan Reinholdz) in 2006 on their new label Massacre. Andromeda play a style of progressive metal not too far removed from your usual Dream Theater mold, however Andromeda have the gift of writing SONGS with progressive elements attached, not progressive elements with songs attached. Over the course of the first two albums Andromeda played two pretty different sounds and Chimera is the result of the band mixing these two sounds with better songwriting, more dynamics, more diversity (not that diversity is missing from the previous albums) and some added flair.

Andromeda have quiet a unique sound, which can be hard to find among modern power/prog outfits. It's pretty much a given that any band playing this style of metal is going to bear some kind of resemblance/similarity to Dream Theater, Andromeda is no exception, the guitar and keyboard tradeoffs and the many time signature changes throughout the songs do have a certain DT sound to them, however Andromeda are one of the few bands of this style that do sound like they are trying to steer away from being another DT clone. Andromeda have a constant airy, futuristic and kind of spacey atmosphere to all of their songs, this is due largely to the pleasant sounding keyboard atmospherics that riddle all of the songs and the soft guitar melodies and chord progressions provided by Reinholdz. On Extension Of the Wish, Andromeda had a very rock n' roll vibe to them and a lot of the songs were very fast and intense with guitar solo's all over the place, unfortunately some of the songwriting sounded a little unfocused. On II=I (where keyboardist Martin Hedin had a very big input on the writing and new vocalist David Fremberg also contributed) the songs were a lot slower and heavier in most cases, the album had a very dark tone and the album as a whole was much more progressive than the first album with fewer guitar solo's but a lot more time changes and a few random instrumental sections, in the end the album sounds a lot more sophisticated but it's not as aurally stimulating as the Extension of the Wish album.

Now we come to the mighty Chimera. While I was fairly impressed by their two previous albums, Chimera is a total knockout. OK, so Chimera was actually my introduction to this band and I was instantly floored, so maybe in comparison the first albums just didn't match up after hearing Chimera, but it has been some time since I recieved the first two albums from Amazon and they have had time to sink in. Chimera keeps the dark and spacey atmosphere from II=I as well as some of the more technical songwriting, however it brings back some of the speed and intensity from the first record. The songwriting has improved by leaps and bounds, the band are not trying to write 10+ minute epics, most songs are under 5 or 6 minutes but thats 5 or 6 minutes of pure entertainment where every songs is diverse, has a climax and is MEMORABLE.

The band provide a good range of tempo's within the album, the songs go from being fast and energetic, moderate and groovy to being slow and brooding, each song is different and because of this the album is a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. The album opens with the speedy 'Periscope' which starts with a dark keyboard melody before it races into a cool guitar riff, the song features a great guitar solo and a fantastic chorus. The thing about this album is that there are hooks everywhere! And I'm not talking about cheesy power metal guitar/keyboard melodies or boring 3 chord rock choruses, I am talking about genuinely smart and well written hooks coming from either David Frembergs beautiful and emotive singing or from Johan's heavy but really catchy guitar riffs. Second song 'In The End' or the fast paced 'Going Under' are perfect examples of this both having hard hitting guitar riffs, dreamy melodies and truly HUGE choruses. While 'The Hidden Riddle' may have slightly cheesy lyrics, it is one of the least musically cheesy power ballads that I have heard from a band of this sort, I will go as far to say that its a really great song with a really beautiful acoustic guitar melody and some amazing singing. For those who are looking for Andromeda's more technical side then look no further then the guitar and keyboard call & response battle at the start and throughout the song 'Inner Circle'. Andromeda go out on a limb and write an almost straight forward hard rock song in 'No Guidelines' which plods along at a moderate pace with a simple but effective structure with a catchy corus. 'This Cage Of Me' is lyrically similar to 'Mirages' from the II=I album but takes a different approach musically, it opens with a slow dark guitar melody and moves into a moderate but technical riff followed by a simple melody in the verse, this song has a nice climax in the middle with David's gentle vocals hypnotising you before he punches you in the face again in the chorus. My personal favourite track on the album is easily 'Iskenderun', it seems to combine all the elements that make Andromeda great into a short punchy 'mimi-epic' which is very heavy and energetic and even has a part that shows Andromeda thinking about crowd involvement at their shows with the addition of a fist-in-the-air sing along part. The final song 'Blink Of An Eye' is a slow dark song with lyrics about us humans destroying our earth, it has a kind of Black Sabbathy vibe witha slow heavy riff, the atmosphere of this song is cool but ultimately I get bored listening to the entire 9 minutes of this song and its the only song on the album that I do not love.

All the members of the band ring in on this album with knockout performances, their not-too-technical but not-too-simple formula does wonders for them. Johans guitar riffs and his solo's are at the top on this album, the new bass player fits right in the pocket, the drummer does and amazing job as usual, Martin Hedin is a focal point with his keyboards but he is never over bearing and the keyboards mainly provide a backing atmosphere with occassional soloing and noodling here and there, vocalist David Fremberg sounds much more at home and comfortable on this album and he really lets his wings stretch on Chimera.

Main idea: a great progressive metal release thats shows this band really moving upto the front of the pack of progressive metal bands, they have trimmed the fat from their songs and produced a rock solid, memorable, all-killer-no-filler album that leave many bands in the dust and is in my opinion their best album to date. For fans of Evergrey, Dream Theater, Symphony X and Vanden Plas. Note of interest; these days I much prefer to listen to Andromeda than DT.

Nice follow up to II=I. Although I don't know if this album surpasses II=I, they once again display amazing odd time signatures, while not losing any kick. This album is a little more straight forward (no instrumental rampages quite like II=I). Fremberg's voice is certainly one of a kind and he could easily be found in a production on Broadway. The drummer, Lejon, is once again obscuring the time signatures with offbeat chops and is superb.