Adagio - Archangels In Black

\r\nLooking for Europeans Symphony X? Don’t search for the answer any more, Adagio is the answer to the question. Although they are not a new band, since they were established in 2000, with total releases of four studio albums and one live album, this year’s album is perhaps their best. Loyal to the musical "principles" that were set out by Michael Romeo, the French managed to provide a solid album, but without resulting to be a cheap copy of Symphony X.
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\r\nLet’s "walk through" the album from outside to inside and start from the cover. Whoever designed it, he really really did his job perfectly. Of course the concept is not new, however, the
\r\npotential buyer is going to take the album from the shelf to look at it in detail.
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\r\nInside the album now, doing the anatomy. First I must say that the album’s production is very good and clear, although the vocals at some points should be mixed to a higher sound leve.Beyond that we have the following:
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\r\nThe dark style that  the cover "describes" is reflected primarily through the lyrics, the track intros, and  bridges where the keys have a leading role. The rest of the music is progressive, aggressive, with varied influences ranging from classical and baroque era to blast drums with harsh vocals from the extreme metal scene.
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\r\nExcellent choice of Christian Palin on vocals. He is very good, since he can pefrectly sing the clean and the harsh vocals, proving that he has great vocal range. Stephan Forte (guitar), is mature enough so that his soloing on the tracks is not repeated, on the contrary his soloing is for exercise for those who want to improve their guitar skills. In addition, Kevin Codfert (keys) manages to give the right atmosphere, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but also to accompany the guitar very well acting as a colleteral. It is not like, at all, we got a little of guitar solo and a little of keys solo and voila! he have a track.
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\r\nAlso another strong point of the albume is that all the track are good, and the album is not getting weak while you listen to the last tracks. The last three tracks verify that. Particularly the nine minute "Codex Oscura" is a "must listen".
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\r\nWe are fortunate that there is only one weak point, but a very strong one. The compositions resemble each other quite and that makes the listener unable to tell the pieces until it listens to the album many times.
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\r\nIn the end, summarizing, I can say that is not masterpiece, but it is an excellent, solid album that the listener will enjoy listening to it,  and not regretting at all about the money he is going to spend for buying it.\r\n

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\r\n Konstantinos Grevenitis \r\n

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