(progressive metal) Miscellane - Painted Palm - 2002, MP3, 320 kbps

This album is wonderful, the music and lyrics of Miscellane are very deep complexed progressive rock. The band are from Slovakia and lead singer/guitarist Peter Orel has an incredible voice which reminds me of Geoff Tate and John West from Royal Hunt.
The CD features five tracks with tracks 1 "Solstice Story Part 1" running in at 13 mins and track 4 "Solstice Story Part 2" running in at a whopping 24 mins which is quite an amazing achievement in itself, but more importantly the songs hold up and and are exciting to listen, the story of these two songs could make a film script in itself, it really doesn't feel like the songs are that long and there is something magical about them and every time you play the songs you hear something different.

"Solstice Story" is an epic piece that tells a tale of ancient rituals in the days of Solstices over an eighteen year period and tells the tale of a love affair between a Queen of a tribe and a young guy who give birth to a daughter who in the second part becomes Queen and her two brothers fall in love with her, and the story continues with tales of the brothers sacrifice etc.

The other tracks are also very good "Wings" is in the vein of Savatage and Dream Theater and "Laments" is powerful and melodic, I really loved Peter's voice on this track which is very much like Geoff Tate whilst "Few Letters On A Tomb" is a big progressive piece a'la Dream Theater and is quite heavy with excellent guitar complexity.

The songs despite the lengths of "Solstice Story" parts 1 and 2 all have lasting effect and will stand testimony to other albums of this style for years to come, I for one was pleasantly suprised by the power this record has, it is so refreshing to hear an artist/band who are not out to impress the punters, but instead play the music that they want to play.

So there you have it an awesome and very effective varied album that is set to make Miscellane a name for themselves.

Strutter'Zine

Peter Orel - vocals and guitars
Roman Hubinsky - keyboards
Peter Bales - bass
Marek Hrabec - drums
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Stano Balaz - additional voice