Band:	M.Z.
Album:	Nostalgic Heroes
Style:	Neoclassical
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Rising To The Throne
02. Nightfall Prelude
03. Last Of A Long Line
04. Salus Honor Virtus
05. Before The Sun Goes Down
06. Maudlin Adagio
07. Moderato Capriccio
08. Polytheist
09. Fleeting Angel
10. Nostalgic Heroes
11. Lanscape Fading Into Infinity

"Nostalgic Heroes" is the new album of the French symphonic act, MZ. In the past, the band only released instrumental albums but this time, they chose to use a singer, Jean-Jacques Fanciulotti. It's a good step for the band in my opinion, because right now instrumental albums (except some few original ones like the ones of Mattias Eklundh) are in general boring and not really trendy. With a singer, I'm sure that the band will touch a lot of new listeners and definitely, it gives something more to the compositions of the combo anyway.

If you want to compare the music of MZ now with some bands, I will talk about Adagio or Symphony X. However you have to know that it's a bit different because for sure, MZ doesn't have the power of those combos and also they're definitely more into symphonic/classical music than Progressive Metal. But it's a bit the same kind of music, with technical soli, great choruses and technical and complex guitar lines. It's not so deep and enliven than the compositions of the two masters of the style and on a side in comparison, it lacks a bit of power but really it's not bad at all and already promising. If you like this kind of music, you should have a look on "Nostalgic Heroes", because without being outstanding, it's a good album.

Its main problem remains the production which is a bit weak and not so clean sometime. That's a bit problematic because this music with such orchestrations and arrangement deserves a real better sound and the one that we have here is not so good for me. Also, the performance of Jean-Jacques Fanciulotti is not bad but not really convincing too. But well, it's his a first appearance with the band so let's give him some time and I'm sure that we will have something perfect on the next release of the combo.

"Nostalgic Heroes" is clearly better than the last album of the French band M.Z. It's not perfect yet but the addition of a singer is a real good thing and with time the band will maybe do something. It won't be easy that's right, the scene is already full of bands but they're good musicians with nice compositions so it should work, at least in France first.