Band:	Rex Mundi
Album:	Balance Between Madness And Hope
Style:	Progressive metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	March 2007
A review by:	Baz Anderson

01. Beyond Hope (Intro)
02. Demise Machine
03. Whispers Of My Soul
04. Figure In A Dream

You may or may not have heard of Rex Mundi but the band originally formed in 2002 in Katerini, Greece and after many line-up changes we have the first, self-financed, release in March 2007. I was already rather curious about listening to this as there was a delay getting a copy here due to all of the original copies being sold and having to wait before more were printed. After receiving the nicely presented CD and listening to it, I can possibly understand why they were successful in selling the first batch of CDs they made.

The CD opens with a two minute introduction track that has seemingly no significance apart from to maybe enhance the explosion of aggressive drum and guitar the first song of the CD kicks off with. Rex Mundi present a rather progressive and interesting sound that changes and keeps the listener's interest at the music. As well as the band members sounding very competent with their respective instruments, this is allowed to shine with the clear and professional sounding production.

"Whispers Of My Soul" has a rather eastern European sound to it with the guitars which shows how diverse the band can be and also that these guys have had influences from a lot of different areas of music.
The last track "Figure In A Dream" is probably the most impressive here though, spanning over nine minutes this track allows the individual members of the band to show the listener just how competent and comfortable they are with their part of the band. The song changes frequently with acoustic guitar and Warrel Dane reminiscent singing one minute to blastbeating, fast double bass drumming and growling vocals the next as well as the odd bass guitar solo. The track, like the full CD, is a real delight to listen to for its entirety, as it does not let the listener's attention wander.

It would seem a lot of time and effort has been put into this one package, and hopefully this is just the beginning for Rex Mundi, they are something different from the normal every day band and something I would recommend taking a look at.

All three songs from the CD can be heard on their myspace page here.