Customer Reviews

Secret Spheres of Art

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great music! You never know where you'll find it. Serbia? Being a geography buff, I happen to know where it is. I also know it was a bulwark against Moslem expansionism in centuries past, being located on the crossroad between Europe and Asia Minor. What I didn't know or even suspect was that they had ever heard of, let alone had a band or bands that played western style music.

Alogia is such a band. They play a western style of music generally called epic power metal, the same kind of music that is played by the great American band, Kamelot, French band, Heavenly, Spanish band, Dark Moor, English band Dragonforce and a bevy of bands from Italy, Germany, Sweden and Finland.

Whether Alogia is an anomaly from Serbia or a trend I do not know. I came across them quite by accident, as I have some other bands, on one of my favorite websites: [...]. One of the things I like about this site is that they seem to have the most comprehensive listing of the various sub genres of progressive rock around. They also have mp3 downloads available on many of the bands, which is how I got to hear Alogia. It's also how I got to hear Riverside and Archive, whose excellent albums I previously bought and reviewed.

The music of Alogia ranges from hard rocking melodic metal fare like `Samson' and `Secret Spheres', to speedy percussion driven Power Metal such as `Legend of a Stolen Heart', `As the Time Passes By' and `Beyond the Time.' Nikola Mijicis provides more than adequate singing with an emotive slightly raspy voice that ranges from pleasant to screaming. As Musicians, the strength of the band seems to be strong guitar and keyboard playing, featuring two guitarists (brothers who were the bands founders) and two keyboardists.

The Secret Spheres of Art contains fourteen tracks but only runs a shade under forty-four minutes. That can be attributed to four instrumental tracks which only run from fifty seconds to a minute forty seconds. Call them suites or introductions to the following songs. Despite their brevity, they are a welcome and integral part of the album. I even consider three of them, Journey into the Dawn of Life, Astral Horizons and Overture Solemnis, highlight songs. Another instrumental song of note is the surreal two minute bombastic "Kontinium" which actually segues into the very short Middle Eastern flavored "Mystica Aegyptiorum," which segues into a chaotic rock song called "Amon."

Other Highlight songs are:

* Secret Spheres features driving, somewhat hectic but catchy harmony led by a persistent synthesizer, strong drums and some strong singing.

* Falling Asleep is warm feeling, melodious song, slightly slower, with some nice harmonic singing by the band. This particular song reminds me of the style of a band called Wonderland.

* Lament is the only ballad on the album. Well, I guess it's really a rock ballad. Very melodious and very catchy. I'm not usually a ballad person but this is an exception. It kind of reminds me of a ballad by Tesla or Def Lepard

I like this band. There isn't anything revolutionary here but they have a nice sound and the work their instruments with precision. There is some orchestral backing on some of the songs as well. Rating 4.25 stars.

What else could I say - probably the best Srbian metal act nowdays. If you understood Serbian, I would've recommended Serbian version of this album, but this is just good enough. Fast, technicly perfect, lots of new prog&power ideas, some of it already heard but still mindblowing... If you're into Deamons & Wizards, Angra, Rhapsody etc. this CD is *A MUST HAVE*!

Neko je ipak morao da napise koju... Zasluzili ste.

I heard the Secret Spheres track on my Helloween station on Pandora some time back and my head exploded. It was controlled chaos wrapped up in a speed/power metal format. The more I heard the track the more I loved it. Eventually Politics of War showed up on the Pandora radar. While I think Secret Spheres is darker and more driving I really dig Politics of War. I figure with two cool songs it's worth $9 for the whole album. These two tracks are in my permanent musical library fore sure. The other songs that I dig are Amon, Kontinuum, and Beyond Time. I have to be in the right mood for the rest of the Album. Overall I think these guys are very talented and their music covers a wide range (from melodic to chaotic. I prefer the chaos but to each their own). I give it 4 stars because the songs I like I absolutely love. If the whole album were like Secret Spheres and Politics of War it would be full 5 stars.

This is a solid power/progressive album from a band that comes out of Serbia. These guys are exellent musicians tecnicly speaking but i feel that they lack creativity side of song writing. This album also lacks originality in a sence that there are thousands of bands that sound the same or very similar to this band. If you want something original and different than get "Triumph of The King" by another serbian band called "TORNADO".

Hail Metal!

This album is poorly mastered. It's pretty bad.

The album, music-wise, is okay, but nothing mindblowing. I don't know if it is worth what I paid. The mastering and producing of this album kills whatever it had going for it, anyway. The sound is so condensed and the effects are pretty bad. I couldn't sworn I heard someone or something hit a mic during one of the songs. That's unacceptable.