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AGE OF NEMESIS Psychogeist Magna Carta (2006)
For all you lovers of interesting concept albums out there, Hungarian prog metallers Age of Nemesis have come up with a very good offering,
in the form of their latest album, ‘Psychogeist'.
The story focuses on the fate of a child, subjected to a form of
medical experimentation, who has a dark secret to tell. His mother, a
psychiatrist, tries to uncover the mystery behind the child's father's
death. Interesting? Indeed. This rather sinister story is told to some
quite decent music by the band's powerful vocalist, Zoltan Kiss, whose
vocals are not dissimilar to those of Russell Allen of Symphony X. In
fact, the music will probably remind you in places of Symphony X, as
well as Dream Theater (especially in the keyboard section) and Shadow
Gallery. This combination of influences definitely works in favour of
the band, but the main complaint I have with respect to ‘Psychogeist'
is that it managed to ‘lose' me a few times, due to the musicians'
attempts to sound maybe too much like Dream Theater.
The end result is that ‘Psychogeist' is an album that boasts some
excellent tracks, such as ‘Fate's Door', ‘Grey Room', ‘Eye of the
Snake' and the instrumental ‘Goddess Nemesis', but it also falls down
on the rather more obscure and unfocussed ‘Karma' and ‘Abraxas'.
The skill of the band's musicians must not be overlooked, however –
Zoltan Fabian on guitars and Gyorgy Nagy on keyboards manage to create
a perfect prog metal sound and sound very on the mark in terms of
technique.
The album also includes a very good video for Fate's Door, which has
a gothic Evergrey – type feel to it.
I would recommend this album to all fans of the genre, as it has some
excellent moments to offer, despite its lack of focus in some sections.
This album has awakened an interest in me to hear the band's previous
efforts and I definitely would not hesitate to see Age of Nemesis live.
Review by Emily Dgebuadze
***½
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