Circle Of Illusion - Jeremias (2013)
Anybody remember this one? This disc got the attention from most, for its incorporation of "disco" elements mixed in with its prog rock opera theatrical story-line. This Austrian progressive metal band that features no less than 8 members, including one male and two female lead singers. This is the mastermind of leader and keyboardist, Gerald Peters. Of course, the disco elements were all the talk at that time as I recall, but that was just one of the incorporations in to the type of music that they were aiming for, mixing in eclectic moments of symphonic prog (rock & metal), jazz/funk, electronica, R&B (the vocals), trip-hop, and cinematic/soundtrack embellishments. You can hear the influences from bands like Frank Zappa, Pain Of Salvaton, Stolen Babies, Dream Theater, and any big score from the famous soundtrack pioneers. The arrangements are very professionally and immaculately done. Normally with this much going on, this type of ambitious project usually falls short because it feels like individual parts are just mixed in for the sake of showing off the instrumentation (sacrificing the making of a song), but in the case of Jeremias, it actually feels like they are aiming to craft a well thought out idea in the form of each individual song. That's what makes this different from other similar attempts at this type of project, although I must say that I don't know that I've ever quite heard all the different styles on display that I do here...certainly not in one song. So that's certainly saying something. There's also great use of viola that I always feel is underutilized in contemporary prog metal. That added to what has already been mentioned give this a special feel. All 3 singers are very talented, and although some pundits might be turned off by the R&B style singing, that it works so flawlessly with some of the hard edged guitars and keyboard/orchestration interplay that it becomes an afterthought about the unique vocals that you hardly ever (if any) hear paired to progressive metal. One final thought about the disco fusion elements...they are mostly in the first few songs with it's late 70's style dance beats, and become a bit less as the album progresses. When folks first heard this, and did not like the disco elements off the bat, they might have been turned off thinking that the whole album featured these stylistic beats throughout, but it's just a portion of the sound. Give it a chance, and listen to this with some nice headphones to hear all that is going on. The band is on indefinite hold due to other commitments and all that is involved in bringing the members together, so a follow up to this only album from them is unknown. That, and Gerald Peters has been on tour with the Cirque du Soleil tour, which is a huge undertaking per a post on their page last year.