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op verzoek van Birdy D via http://poprock.actieforum.com/

One more album from Vic Records that seems to take the whole thing seriously, since bands like PAGANIZER, ANOTHER LIFE, THIS HAVEN and MEMORY GARDEN among others have signed to this label and are releasing their brand new albums. The Dutch label has been doing some great work lately, and that's something that made me believe that ANOTHER LIFE was going to be a pleasant surprise for me. And indeed it was!

Formed in 2003 (if I am not mistaken), ANOTHER LIFE is the brainchild of RIBSPREADER and ex-PAGANIZER guitarist Andreas Karlsson. After two demos in 2003 and 2004, the one man band finally managed to earn a contract and release its debut full-length album, an album that probably owes much to the high and mighty Dan Swano who has done a lot of work in here.

Let's start with the basic stuff, which means what this band's one and only mind has done. Karlsson has crafted a really beautiful Progressive Metal album with a dark vibe surrounding each note, giving the music a kind of NIGHTINGALE meets OPETH tone. Adding some slight Heavy Metal touches, the Swedish artist shows that despite his extreme past (and present) he can lay down his more melodic thoughts and create something that can be pretty good. The album has been enforced with the production that Mr. Swano took care of. But Swano's magic fingers did not only touch the console, since he is the one behind the keyboards in this album, too.

So, enough with the good stuff. Let's get to the negative points of this album. I guess that Karlsson can write some kick ass music, and I said above he proves it here for one more time and in a different way from what he used to do. He also proves that even by himself he can control the structure and moves of a band. What he hasn't worked as much as he should in my humble opinion is the vocals section, since his voice sounds weak. His vocal melodies are really flat and he is far from what you could characterize as colorful. So, I guess that I have to be fair in my rating since this is only a debut release and the most important stuff are yet to come. So, let's put our trust in him and hope for some even more beautiful works in the future.



CD1
 01. Falling Apart
 02. The End of the Days
 03. The Last Goodbye
 04. Firstborn Unicorn
 05. Cotton Pines
 06. Everlasting
 07. I Am Nothing
 08. The Everflow
 09. Poltava 



CD2
 01. Empire
 02. Tree Of Existence
 03. Concealed By Fright
 04. Reflections
 05. Cotton Pines II
 06. Lifetime
 07. Time
 08. Standing Pale
 09. Tree Of Existence (Unicorn Version)