Band:	Voyager
Album:	Element V
Style:	Symphonic progressive metal
Release date:	April 04, 2003
A review by:	Jeff

01. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
02. To The Morning Light
03. Cosmic Armageddon Part. I
04. Towards Uncertainty
05. The Eleventh Meridian
06. This Bitter Land
07. The Ancient Labyrinth
08. Miseria
09. Monument
10. The V Element
11. Cosmic Armageddon Part. II
12. Kingdoms Of Control
13. Time For Change
14. Echoes Of Old Terra

Who said that it's impossible to have any originality in Metal nowadays??? I don't remember his name, but I'm not sure that he will be proud of his words when he will listen to the first album of this excellent young combo from Australia. Through the Dutch label DVS Records one of the best label to discover amazing Progressive bands [Into Eternity? yeah yeah it was also DSV] the combo release finally Element V [which was an auto-production before]. And damn what a promising first album, if you like good Metal, for sure you must check it!!!

It's not really easy to describe the music of the band, because they are able to touch all the Metal musical styles, from Power to Death through Heavy and even Indus, but in one word I could say Progressive Metal, or maybe only?"Original" Metal. Each songs of the album are different, some will really sound Electronic, and some others will be a bit heavier? That's possible yes, a band did it, all the songs of this album are totally different. One song can be funky, the other very dark near of death, the other will sound like some classical music, and one other will sound "oriental". All the songs are more than catchy with really good ambiances [in fact a lot of its sound futurist, that's really good because you can have songs which sound "classical" mixed with a futuristic ambiance] and if you add that all the musicians are very good? We have great guitars solo, the bass is more than present, the drums are very good and powerful and the singer can sing with a very good and particular Heavy Metal voice or even with a Death Metal one? Do you really need/want something more? I don't think so?
But you'll certainly wonder if all that is not a bit messy? Well definitely not, [we call that "talent"] all the songs are linked without any doubts but evidently all the songs are totally different in their musical composition, that's really surprising?
The production of this cd is also very good, no problem with the sound or something else and when I think about it, this is only the first album of the band, then damn I'm wondering what they will be able to do in the future? [that's maybe the only risk for the band in fact, it will maybe a bit harder to do something surprising like this "Element V" but after all why not?]

"Element V", is for me one of the great surprises of the year, without any doubt we will hear about this band in the future. This album is a synonym of originality and it's good to see that some young bands are again inspired and are able to avoid to fall in the trick of Melodic Death metal or Power. I really recommend this album to all the Metal Heads who want something surprising. "Element V", is a must have for you?