Band:	Andromeda
Album:	Extension Of The Wish
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	April 02, 2001
Guest review by:	Kap'N Korrupt

01. The Words Unspoken
02. Crescendo Of Thoughts
03. In The Deepest Of Waters
04. Starshooter Supreme
05. Chameleon Carneval
06. Extension Of The Wish
07. Archangel
08. Journey Of Polyspheric Experience [bonus]
09. Eclipse [bonus]

Andromeda's debut album entitled Extension of the Wish finally brings together what has been taking the band years to contrive. Problems with vocalists have set this band back a number of years. After submitting his demo 'Welcome to Forever' to the WAR label, guitarist Johan Reinholdz and his band would wait two years to be picked up by the Century Media label in order to release Extension of the Wish. Lawrence Mackrory from the Swedish death metal band Darkane acts as a temporary fill-in on vocals because Century Media basically fired Andromeda's pervious vocalist. Mackrory isn't a big winner here with the vocals. His dead pan singing style comes across as very monotonous and droning over the accolades of prog that back him up. Listening to him in Andromeda makes one glad that he was replaced by David Fremberg, a more talented vocalist that performs the prog vocalist job well but doesn't over accentuate high-ended notations. The production fails slightly on this album, but not enough to ruin the listen. Still flawless, the album sounds like it was recorded in a cave or somewhere where sound cannot escape so easily. The bass playing of Gert Dunn, who does not appear again in Andromeda, is nowhere to be found except during the breakdown that introduces the refrain in Star Shooter Supreme, a very catchy and fun song featuring very cheesy lyrics about space. The instrumental piece Chameleon Carneval highlights the elasticity of Johan Reinholdz's guitar playing, bringing arpeggios and scale runs to life with some meaty chord work along with some organ melodies to balance it all out. This piece takes off with some nice virtuoso solo work, but the progressive instrumentation of Andromeda doesn't reach full tilt until Morphing Into Nothing on Andromeda's second release entitled II=I. The best track on this album is arguably Crescendo of Thoughts. It is easily the most progressive piece on the album; chock full of enough time changes, fusion-inspired scale runs and wankery to listen to over and over again in awe. In short, even though Final Extension is a much better Extension of the Wish, the debut captures the rawer and less polished adventurous fun side of the band during the formative process.