Band:	Voyager
Album:	UniVers
Style:	Symphonic progressive metal
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Higher Existence
02. Deep Weeds Of Viduity
03. Ever Waiting
04. Between the Sheets
05. Sober
06. Cross the Line
07. Pulse 04
08. Falling
09. What I Need
10. One More Time
11. White Shadow

Voyager is really original band from Australia and for me they're probably one of the most surprising combos that I had the luck to review since a lot of time. Their first release "Element V" was a really cool piece of music and I can tell you that you'll not be disappointed by their new album which mixes with a lot of intelligence Power and Progressive music. This is classy one more time and I hope that their signature with Dockyard 1 will help them to become famous!

If you like Power or Progressive Metal I'm sure that you'll like the new Voyager. The bands use to play an intelligent mix of melodic Power Metal which means that you'll be able to find a lot of catchy choruses but they have also a lot of keyboards and electronic sounds in their compositions. Since that their songs aren't easy and all but not commercial (even if the choruses can be really catchy) "Univers" is a really pleasant album. This new album is deep and complex a bit Epic and in general "happy" and really "dancing", don't except any kind of complex Prog here, the songs directly go to their goal and it's convincing. Modern with all its electronic sonorities but also classic with its Power Metal side, "Univers" is a lovely album extremely original because it's not really easy to find something comparable. A song like High Existence which flirt with Folk, or "Sober" which is a bit more proggy are two perfect example to describe the album. "Univers" is varied and not linear but really easy of access too and will convince all the ones who like Prog but aren't too much into this kind of music, it's a good compromise between a lot of music.

The production of the album is good but a bit loud sometime and could be better, though all in all "Univers" don't suffer of any other real problems. I like the voice of the singer and the interpretations of the other musicians are clean as hell anyway so maybe that you'll not enter in the musical world of Voyager but in that case I will not really understand why except if of course, you're totally hermetic to this kind of music.

The new Voyager is a confirmation of all the great things that we've heard about their first album. If you remember, I already said that this combo was promising, I wasn't wrong, "Univers" confirms all my words and I'm sure that you'll like it a lot if you're just a bit open minded. Don't miss this release if you want to listen to something new and original.