It's not too often these days, very much thanks to PhotoShop "wizards" out there, that cover artwork manages to attract any kind of attention. 'Reset Your Soul's did. This album is the sophomore effort from this Polish progressive metal band. Before you stop reading because of the word "progressive", please note that Animations are quite a distinctive affair in this genre. A genre, where musicianship and sadly, musical masturbation, usually come before songs...

Animations' music is as nuanced, polymorphous and alternating as the cover's line art. So, the music's basis is progressive metal, but the band utilize so many different elements, that they aren't yet another Dream Theater clone. The music is mostly very well balanced. There are speedy power metal bits, heavy metal juggernaut parts, epic soundscapes, extremely soft moments and also a few weirder fusion things happening. Generally the music flows very, very well, but whenever there's a fusion part, I find it mostly unfitting. Seems like these guys just wanted to show off a bit, like "hey, listen to this what we can play!" Thankfully these improvised fusion parts are quite rare. However, the musicianship from every member is breathtaking and versatile. As is their sense of melody and understanding in composing music.

The title track opens the album with style; it's a true rollercoaster ride through fantastic melodies and slow and fast parts. It presents one of the important factors about Animations: They can make songs. Even the solo parts, be it guitar or synthesizer, are memorable but still skillful. 'Demons of War' with its Hammond, double kick drumming, fast fretboard fingering and generally more heavy metal attitude keeps the energy level up. 'Inscrutable' is more like a story-based composition, and good at that. Instrumental 'The Manhattan Project' is about USA's first atomic bomb developing project. Starting with Japan-esque melodies (which I at first thought were from 1980-1990s computer games series 'The Last Ninja', so similar they are) with heavy blasting, then slowing down a bit and then... There is a lot of stuff in this song, let me tell you, but it has no single dull moment (even the fusion parts here fits), and this is a true achievement when talking about an instrumental.

The second half of the album starts with slow piano/vocals song 'Request for Redemption', which is simply too generic. Not bad, but way too Dream Theater-esque and therefore dispensable. The longest song on the album, 'The Last Man' has some pointless parts to it, and some of them are fusion. Too often these fusion bits tend to break the flow of a song they appear on. But damn me, if those lead guitar melodies aren't perfect (once again, you'll hear a lot of these throughout the album)! The album's second instrumental, '1989', begins as a jolly computer game theme from that era, before entering epic and heroic themes among more warped sonicscapes. A weird trip, this one, with some Ayreon-esque elements during it... 'Toxicyber' must be the most straight song here. It explodes into a massive groove and heaviness in the beginning, later presenting a catchy-as-heck chorus, but also a tad too many turns along the way (like that Mid-Eastern one towards the end of the song).

The vocals are very much in vein of Dream Theater's James LaBrie, and therefore are a tad too soft for my liking. They also remind me of Vision Divine's Michele Luppi and Silent Voices' Michael Henneken. I wish there was more choirs like on 'Toxicyber', which sound similar to Evergrey's choirs. Production-wise this is good. The guys recorded it by themselves and it was mastered by Tommy Hansen. The soundscape is a living, breathing entity, with a lot of stuff happening. I like how organic the drums sound, so thanks for not using the triggers. You should also expect a lot of toying with sounds.

I wish the band good luck for getting that recognition that they are entitled to, also outside the borders of Poland. I'm totally baffled if 'Reset Your Soul' will not be released by a bigger record label. Prog metal fans out there, hunt this one down ASAP, because you'll be happy for your small trouble! And you, who are not 100% prog metal freaks, I can recommend this for the fans of Dream Theater, Vision Divine, Ayreon, Silent Voices... Animations deserve the tag "progressive metal", because it is what this album is about.

Rating: 8+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/10/2010 17:09