ANDROMEDA

“II = I”   (two is one)
(New Hawen / Century Media, 2003, 65’11”)

Tracklisting :
Encyclopedia (7’36”), Mirages (5’42”), Reaching deep within (4’50”), Two is one (10’10”), Morphing into nothing (7’34”),
Castaway (6’17”), Parasite (6’55”), One in my head (8’03”), This fragile surface (8’04”)

Musicians :
David Fremberg : vocals
Jacob Tanentsapf : bass
Thomas Lejon : drums
Johan Reinholdz : guitar
Martin Hedin : keyboards

On the band’s debut album “Extension of the wish” released in 2001, Swedish progmetal outfit Andromeda mainly was an instrumental brainchild of guitarist Johan Reinholdz to which they had added vocalist Lawrence Mackrory in order to make it sound more like a true band. You needn’t to have been an expert to hear the band was capable of better things if only they could work with a permanent singer as opposed to the odd guest which only joined the band in the studio. Next to Reinholdz’ melodic death metal band NonExist surely Andromeda is his main band on which he tries to focus so the band can develop towards a well deserved place in the progmetal world. Contrary to a lot of ‘ordinary’ progmetal outfits, Andromeda experiments with not so evident soundscapes as is apparent during the crossover between opener ‘Encyclopedia’ and ‘Mirages’.

With the arrival of singer David Fremberg it looks like the band is finally complete, that his presence fits the music of Andromeda best and that he can be used as a complimentary ‘instrument’ if you like, in order to develop the band’s music even more. Nevertheless it will still remain the instrumental sections which will pull the fans massively towards Andromeda. Especially the ‘fights’ between guitar and keyboards sound legendary. In most cases once you see the label ‘progmetal’ pop up you kind of think you know what to expect. In the case of Andromeda luckily this isn’t the case as one surprise follows the other in order to thickly underline the word ‘originality’ ! Would any band in it’s genre dare to deliver a pure ballad as does the band here with ‘Two is one’ yet which after a while changes towards authentic progmetal few bands are able to deliver. Certainly a fantastic ‘tour de force’.

With the instrumental ‘Morphing into nothing’ Reinholdz perfectly illustrates his excellent skills as a guitarist whether it’s inhumanly fast or extremely powerful. As done so many times throughout the music of Andromeda he often gives the solospot to keyboardplayer Martin Hedin who blends ever so well within the fast and furious playing. During ‘Castaway’ he even delivers something which comes close to a classic piano concerto. In fact he repeats this classical influence during the intro for ‘One in my head’ in which he spices up the rhythm by means of staccato organ followed by wild synths. As the album evolves it becomes clear that Hedin sometimes gets a bigger slice of the cake than Reinholdz himself ! It also becomes clear that the vocal harmonies are screaming for a choir which would most certainly give the music an extra dimension. With the final song ‘This fragile surface’ the band proves once again that it has risen to take the place amongst the world’s very best in the domain of progmetal. Now that they have found their ideal line-up they can start building a large following as from now on all they need to do is make one extraordinary album after another which they certainly will !

John ‘Bo Bo’ Bollenberg