Mirror Of Creation

Fans of Everon, Poverty's No Crime or first Dream Theater, this Mirror Of Creation might attract you, especially if your favorite music style is ... the prog metal. I bought Tomorrow's Eve in Sweden, at the Rock Festival. What wake up my interest was the cover with this green eye. I was presuming to a progressive metal album and this is what Mirror Of Creation is all about. This is the second album of this German band - yes Germany is not trapped inside heavy/thrash metal - and is the follow up of their first album The Unexpected World (2000) which got a good press. The "scary" and strange intro opens the dance, Prof Brandon. The first track , Optimization, highlights right away the talent of the musicians. For sure, these guys know how to make use of their instruments. The song writing is intelligent, complex, progressive - sometimes to much - and the vocalist does a decent job inside this "fertile" music. The complexity doesn't leave the listener through out the album considering the average length of the songs - roughly 9 minutes! A long and complex world as far as I am concerned, however never boring. In fact, I felt myself listening to a multifaceted and dynamic version of Styx. Mirror Of Creation is a concept album. As you know, this type of album requires a world full of emotions in order to capture the listener attention. Songs like Cold Silence or the magnificent If Eyes Turn Blind - what a piano ! - scores straight away, reminding me somehow Shadow Gallery. The bass, the guitar and the keyboard are the "elected" sunshine, regressing the vocalist. Regressing ? Although the songs are not boring, some parts are so long that you actually lose contact with the vocalist. Simplicity would have been welcome at some stage. The other "weak" point is the toneless voice : I have the feeling the singer "reads" the lyrics instead of "feeling" them. Rouven Bitz (vocals) must absolutely improve and transmit more emotions if he wants to stay in contact with the music. The strong point on Mirror Of Creation is the production : topnotch. Usually with prog-metal, you are "trapped" by the instruments. Here, each of them is at the right place, at the right time : the bass takes the lead and step back when the guitar or the drums must break new ground. Overall, Mirror Of Creation is a good progressive metal album although I felt the band "trapped" inside his own creation, repeating too many times the same structure again and again. Mirror, mirror ... tell me who is beautiful : Tomorrow's Eve bring too much into play his ego and misplace sometimes the sense of melody. As said above, simplicity is required. For die-hard fans of prog metal :)