SYMMETRY - A SOUL'S ROADMAP - 2004

Dutch band Symmetry was founded in the early nineties by singer Erik Masselink and guitar player Franc Tiehuis. After completing the band with another guitar player, a bass player and a drummer the mini-album To Divinity was recorded in the beginning of 1997 and released in 1998 under Symmetry's own control. The first full-length album Watching The Unseen was released in 2002 and this one was a true prog metal classic already.

The new album is called A Soul's Roadmap and can be seen as a huge development in the music of Symmetry. I think that the two ex-Harrow band members Martin Kuipers (drums) and Erik de Boer (guitar and vocals) also had their influence on this new album that one could certainly describe as prog metal with "clear" musical influences from bands like: Fates Warning, Sieges Even and Queensryche. But you can also hear some modern musical sources from bands such as Evergrey, Wolverine or Pain Of Salvation. It is rather technical music with twin lead guitar attacks and most of the songs are rather complex but still all 15 tracks have a clear melodic sense.

A Soul's Roadmap is the first conceptual rock album of Symmetry and the music tells the sci-fi story of a guy called Korben, who is searching for his wife's soul. As a result of this conceptual approach the music has been used to visualise Korben's journey in any possible way. The story is told backward like the movie Memento, so the first track called Singularity is in fact the end of the story.

Dark Horizons features a bombastic guitar opening, which evolves into a rather heavy guitar riff that dominates this song together with some Iron Maiden hooks and melodies. Another track that I like is Lies Lie Beneath, a song with an explosive instrumental intro and some head banging riffs that could guarantee a nice head ache….. Journey Into The Unknown is the third highlight and it is again a very diverse track, filled with astonishing guitar lines, amazing guitar solos and an unexpected bass guitar solo in the end. But as many bands do, Symmetry saves the best for last. Listen To Me, also the longest track of the album, is without any doubt the best song these guys have written. In this song there is so much going on, that is almost impossible to describe; but I can tell you it is a killer track!

Only the last 1.5 minutes (a peep sound?) are super redundant, guys. Furthermore it would be wise for singer Erik Masselink to vary his voice some more, sometimes it all sounds a bit too monotonous, although his throat could be best described as a mix of the sounds of Eric Adams, Blaze and Bruce Dickinson, but he is not – not yet – as good as those guys. So keep working on that vocal parts and I truly believe that Symmetry will become an internationally highly acclaimed prog metal band.
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