Sieges Even - The Art Of Navigating By The Stars review
| Band: | Sieges Even |
| Album: | The Art Of Navigating By The Stars |
| Style: | Progressive metal |
| Release date: | 2005 |
| Guest review by: | Milena |
01. Intro: Navigating By The Stars
02. Sequence I: The Weight
03. Sequence II: The Lonely Views Of Condors
04. Sequence III: Unbreakable
05. Sequence IV: Stigmata
06. Sequence V: Blue Wide Open
07. Sequence VI: To The Ones Who Have Failed
08. Sequence VII: Lighthouse
09. Sequence VIII: Styx
I'm quite shocked that this album hasn't got a review yet. Yes, Sieges Even is rather an unknown band, even among prog fans (I got it as a recommendation from a more experienced one than myself), but this album is a true masterpiece.
The first thing that caught my ears off guard is the atmosphere of the songs. "Sequence I: The Weight" is a sound equivalent of a Salvador Dali picture. "Sequence V: Blue Wide Open" captures the perfect atmosphere of a hot, sunny noon somewhere in the Mediterranean sea. Most of other songs I can easily associate with sparkling colours of sunsets and sunrises. The band deserves a perfect grade in writing such complicated songs that yet so easily communicate with the listener. You don't have to try and get a grip of what the artist wants to say through several listens so you could appreciate the album, which is one of the more common situations when you've just started listening to prog like me. Instead, its beauty deepens the more you listen to it, but the overall feeling and understanding of the songs are just the same. The other perfect grade I've given to them is for perfectly executing those songs and getting the messages across.
Lyrically, it's also very intriguing, which I appreciate in a band. If most albums tell tales about people walking through life's path, this one is about dreamers flying through life's path. It is also very connected to the flows of waters, specifically seas, which is a theme carried through to Paramount.
The weak spots of this album? Well, speaking of weaker tracks, I've found "Sequence V: Blue Wide Open" not entirely fitting to the sound of the whole album, it mellows it down a bit too much. Also, "Sequence III: Unbreakable" is too personal and fades in comparison to the highlights. The weak spot of the whole band - well, despite their beautiful sound, I don't know how much do they appeal to the crowd who is not into prog. They're not exactly the right stuff for your regular metalhead, with no heavy distortions, or pounding drums, or the overall sweet vocals of Arno Menses.
Highlights: "Sequence II: The Lonely Views Of Condors," "Sequence IV: Stigmata," "Sequence VIII: Styx"
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Milena | 09.02.2011
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 6
Visited by: 145 users
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603  |
Written by [user id=2084] on 09.02.2011 at 20:11 Well, there is a cool band called Subsignal, who had an album in 2009 and are currently working on a new one, in it are Markus Steffen and Arno Menses, and it pretty much has the Sieges Even atmosphere combined with some other influences  so if you miss Sieges Even, that's a good band to start listening to.
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| R'Vannith ghedengi Elite Posts: 3099  |
Only ever heard the album "Uneven" from this band. That album is really different, it's very experimental/avantgarde, whereas this one is all about atmosphere. Your great review encouraged me to give the band another listen. I honestly can't think of any other band that released two great albums in succession (though over an 8 year period) that were so startlingly different. I can hear traces of what they did with "Uneven" on here but it's just so refreshing to hear a band totally reinvent their sound and still manage to put out quality music. If that's not an example of progressive music I don't know what is.
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by R'Vannith on 02.11.2011 at 07:41 Nice sentence Markus Steffen once said that he doesn't hear a lot of progression in nowadays' prog music, and I think he's quite right, most of it is based on works of the prog greats which are on their own based on progressive rock elements entering metal music and so forth.This album really, really means a lot to me, I could go on and on about the things it made me feel, it's so wonderful I have an urge to listen to it every time someone mentions it and I'll be the first to give it a perfect ten. But this was my first review, so I didn't wanna do that
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Neithan Posts: 3 |
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603 |
Written by Neithan on 06.03.2013 at 15:02 I am perfectly fine with that complaint 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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