Band:	Abydos
Album:	The Little Boy's Heavy Mental Shadow Opera About The Inhabitants Of His Diary
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. The Inhabitants Of His Diary
02. You Broke The Sun
03. Silence
04. Far Away From Heaven
05. Coppermoon (The Other Side)
06. Hyperion Sunset
07. God's Driftwood
08. Radio Earth
09. Abydos
10. Green's Guidance For A Strategy Adventure Game
11. Wildflowersky
12. A Boy Named Fly

The city of Abydos, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, flourished from about 4000 BC to 641 BC. This ancient city was identified as the burial site of the mythological god-king Osiris, known as the god of reincarnation. Many believers made pilgrimages to the site to bury their loved ones or erect cenotaphs (monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere) in their memory. Festivals and passion plays of Osisri's life and death were performed here for about 200 years. Because of this, many historians consider Abydos to be the birthplace of Theater.

Theater plays a major role in Andy Kuntz life, he's been part of many plays since the early '80s, plays like Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Evita, Nostradamus among others, also Mr. Kuntz is the frontman of German Progressive Metallers Vanden Plas.

After having a rough year and loosing many loved ones, Andy began writing a solo album in order to deal with his pain, and to give tribute to missed loved ones, the result is this mesmerizing conceptual album called Abydos: The Little Boy's Heavy Mental Shadow Opera About The Inhabitants Of His Diary.

The album uses elements from the Progressive Rock from the '70s and modern elements like choirs and string arrangements, paired with electronic samples and acoustics interludes, this a very varied album i must say. Album stars with a short intro and immediately followed by the beautiful ballad "You Broke The Sun" a beautiful song, lyrically and musically, the acoustical moments blend in with the strings and choirs, the song reaches a climax at the end with amazing (what it seems) child choirs.

"Silence" is a groovy Progressive Metal song, while "Far Away From Heaven" is another beautiful ballad that slowly builds from piano only to full orchestration with a catchy chorus, in "Coppermoon (The Other Side)" the first electronic elements began to appear, and "Hyperion Sunset" unleash some aggressive upon the listener, "God's Driftwood" is a mysterious song, strange atmospheres, electronic elements and a catchy riff, what else do you want?

"Radio Earth" is another of my favorites, an acoustical song with excellent lyrics and superb arrangements, title song "Abydos" starts off a-capella, then a piano and dark, moody orchestrations appear, the song builds up into this excellent Progressive piece.
Robot-like intro in "Greens Guidance For?." That melds into "Wildflowersky" , just to give room to last song, a 12 minute epic track called "A Boy Named Fly".


It doesn't ends there, having the Cd and reading the booklet is another great experience, the whole design and layout is just amazing, the drawings are astonishing, the whole artistic treatment could be easily a thing that Tim Burton could have done in his book "The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy", as a matter of fact, the whole album has this Tim Burton-esque feel to it.

Needless to say, THE Progressive release of 2004, excellent musicianship, experimentation, creativity, superb songwriting, outstanding artwork, what else do you want? Go get this album immediately.