Band:	Odyssey
Album:	Resurrection
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	2009
A review by:	Ernis

01. Part I Darkness
    1 - Living Dark
    2 - Loneliness And Silence
    3 - Deep Universe
02. Eyes Of The Universe
03. Close To You
    1 - Self Control
    2 - So Close To You
    3 - Eternity
04. The Global
05. In The Name Of Despair
06. Soulstealer
07. The Invisible Road
    1 - Through The Darkness Light
    2 - A New Way
    3 - Through The End Of The Night
08. Illumination (The Wavering Core)
09. Prayer For The Exile
10. Hell Vision Utopia
11. Resurrection

Odyssey are a progressive metal act from Spain who have been around for a long time already, namely since 1989. Their first album In Space And Time was released in 1990 and was among the first milestones of the style in Spain. This review is about their second work called Resurrection which was released only a while ago. The huge gap in time between the releases of the two albums has seen lots of lineup changes and restless periods but finally Resurrection is here to mark the awakening of their music from the big sleep.

This album is a complex and rich one. This is logic for this fruit bears the impressions and colours of all the work the band have been doing for years with lots of good features pressed together into this latest effort. The progressive style of the band also bears some shades of symphonic metal similar to the works of Symphony X. Nevertheless, the music is not at all as bombastic nor expressive as the symphonic style would imply. This album has the main stress on technique which is very well executed. The instrumental side is taken care of by the simple trinity of guitar, bass and drums without any need for keyboards. The singer Ivan Valle indeed is a good choice to fill the vocal spot of the band since his voice is just perfect for this kind of music, moderate and expressive.

The positive side is that one will find several beautiful and catchy moments in every song of the album. The somewhat negative side might be that the songs are very long and the main stress is not on the creating the suspense but on a constant flow which, along with the complex style, makes the album demand somewhat more time to get into than an average album would.

Picking the best songs is not an easy task for the best moments are not as much present on particular tracks (some of which being very long) but during the whole course of the album. Among the best ones are "Darkness", "Close To You", "The Global", "Soulstealer", "Hell Vision Utopia" and "Resurrection". "Prayer For The Exile" is a very beautiful acoustic ballad.

All in all this album is a fine work which also recalls memories from the atmosphere of the music of the 80ies and early 90ies. While this album's content is not something one would expect to hear from a big festival stage in front of thousands of noisy people, this band would sound perfect somewhere on the stage of a comfortable club where one can sit and have an ale and appreciate the atmosphere. I hope Odyssey have now waken up and will issue more albums in near future.