Band:	Svanzica
Album:	Eos
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	March 26, 2009
A review by:	Bas

01. Whispering
02. Anatta
03. Russian Snow
04. Acoustic Interludio
05. Liria Underground
06. Raindust Meraviglia
07. Ceremonial Lakespells
08. Reborn Desert Aurora
09. Wounds '08 [Acoustic Version]

I've rarely procrastinated writing a review for as long as this one. And yet I'm still not really sure what to make of this one. What can one say about a band that has a lot of good ideas but just fails to connect them into a cohesive whole?

There are a lot of likeable things about the instrumentation on Eos. The acoustic parts and especially the jazzy sections are pretty sweet and I also like the oh so subtle mood and rhythm changes. On the other hand the few extreme parts are totally off and the music often sounds too loose. I really like the song structures these guys have on some songs, but then the next song's on its way to bore that spark of interest out of me again. The lacklustre production doesn't help either.

Note that so far I've only talked about the instruments. And as it is the positive and negative issues balance each other out. But now enter the vocals and things get a little different. Honestly, with a completely average (note that average is not a good thing in my book) vocalist I would've rated this album a 6.5.

At first I thought it's just a matter of getting into it, and I tried, I really did. But it's not the case. In short, his voice is incredibly annoying (kind of like this, although presumably sober).

The band has a lot of good approaches, some good ideas and some of the solos are fantastic. Yet they still need to work on their songwriting, building on those good ideas already present. There's still quite some work to be done, but I'm sure they can get there and perhaps release a superb prog album at some point. However it should go without saying that it won't work with their current vocalist.