Band : Illusion Suite
Album title : Final Hour
Label : Limb Music
Distributor : Suburban - Bertus
Release Date : 07/08/2009
Release : CD

What a pleasant discovery this was.  Coming from a land with a relatively small metal scene, especially compared to their neighbours Sweden and Finland, Norway could almost be described as a third world country.

When the label progressive metal band is put on you, immediately thoughts arise of groups like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Vandenplas and others.spring to your mind, and on some points there are indeed similarities in that the strong structures are sometimes quite complex.

But on the other hand Illusion Suite takes another approach.    Where Dream Theater’s songs sometimes are so complex that you have to hear them several times to get it all, sometimes maybe even to complex – would that be the reason why the songs they write seem to get longer and longer all the time – trying to put too much different things into one song, Illusion Suite keep it quite a bit simpler.  And that is no complaint at all, as a matter of fact it is more a praise.
These guys are equally able to put down a wall of sound, as play some intricate parts, even mixing in some classical music.  A great start.  Keep up this high standard.

85/100

Erik Morren.