I had heard a lot of good things about Andromeda, so I was eager to
listen to the album and judge for myself. They've been compared to Dream
Theater and Vanden Plas, which of course, definitely got my attention.
Well, the first song (The Words Unspoken) is a real slap in the face,
one of the best prog song I've heard in a long time, the guitars are majestic,
the melody approaches the perfection and the overall reminds me the freshness
of the newcomer band Supreme Majesty, but with very imprinted progression
touch. Solos and guitar riffs will battle throughout that epic song that you're
not likely to forget any day soon ! Dream Theater was for sure an inspiration
for these guys, both in song writing that in the way keyboards are used. After
the exciting pulsion from the first song, I was really patient to listen to
more... Well, although the album will deliver another few killer tracks, none
of them compete against the first one, and the overall quality is inferior to
what I expected, especially when I saw somewhere that this album was compared
to Images & Words. Of course it's nonsense to compare these two releases,
cause although this Extension Of The Wish is a very good Prog Metal release,
it doesn't match the supremacy and perfection of DT's best ever album.
The songwriting is very, very complex, sometimes too much, but it still remain
quite melodic. The vocals are quite nice, and even reminds Labrie sometimes
(probably intentionally). The album contains 3 instrumental tracks and they're
all very nice.
In the end, Prog Metal freaks will jump on that one and will probably love
it, I personally find this release to be a quite good Prog Metal album, but
without revolutionizing the style neither, and maybe because it was compared
to the best album and prog bands put my hopes a bit high. A very good release
for all prog fans : you can invest without fear. Keep up the good work.