Spheric Universe Experience - Anima (2007)

Vince Benaim (guitarist) with his friends Sam (drummer) and John Drai (bassist) came together to form Gates of Delirium in 1999. It was only by 2001 that keyboardist Fred Colombo and vocalist Alex joined in to form a complete band and was renamed as Amnesya. In August 2002, the band split because of musical disagreements leaving Vince, John and Fred to continue under the name of Spheric Universe Experience (S.U.E.) with Franck Garcia as the new vocalist. Thus an awesome, yet unheard of, French progressive metal band was born. Influenced by bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Angra and even older progressive bands like Pink Floyd, S.U.E. has magically combined progressive metal with a tinge of jazz and classical to produce something brilliant. Keyboardist Fred Colombo adds a symphonic touch to complex riffs built in very interesting time signatures.

Their album Anima (2007) is perhaps the best progressive album in recent times. The songs have deep lyrical sense and are quite poetic. Songs like The Key and End Of Trauma have odd time signatures while Black Materia has Fred running along chromatic scales. It takes some time to actually get used to their sense of music, which at first might appear absurd. On the whole, it is a treat for the progressive metal lovers but it may not be very palatable for the newbies.

A montage on the song Being uploaded on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWs52NTkJp8 is a must see.

They have an older album called Mental Torment (2005) which has always been unavailable to me untill now. I've heard to the song Burning Box Gala for which is an instrumental and it definitely speaks tons about the album itself. With great expectations I leave its review pending for now.