DEVENTTER - THE 7TH DIMENSION - 2007

When I think of Brazil, I automatically thing of Rio de Janeiro, the carnival and the Amazon. But Brazil is also home to some very good progressive rock bands. Thanks to the wonderful world of MySpace, I came in touch with one of these bands, called Deventter. They were quite happy to send me a copy of their first full length album, The 7th Dimension, and I was very curious to hear their sound.

Well, I must say, the album is quite impressive! It is a very driven album presenting a mixture between excellent prog rock and prog metal, but I would not go as far as calling them a prog metal band. The songs are all over 7 minutes, not including the very weird intro and they even bring an epic suite of almost 18 minutes. So they are not afraid to set the bar pretty high.

And in my opinion they have met the expectations. The song writing is diverse and exciting. When I listen to the album, I do not have immediate associations with other, known songs or bands, which is good. It is clear these guys know how to write a good rock song. Also musically, each member knows his place and at no time the music becomes chaotic. All the ingredients for an enjoyable listening experience are present. The band even incorporates some beautiful orchestrations in the music.

The epic track The Longest Day is a real highlight of the album. The band has divided it into 4 seperate tracks, but it should be listened to as one piece. It showcases the bands ability to build up a song and hold the attention of the listener.

I really enjoyed listening to the 7th Dimension and do feel these guys have an enormous potential. Yet they do need some guidance. This album is evidence enough they can write good and solid songs. But on the production field they could use a hand, as the production, especially for the drums, could be a lot better and that would make the album even more great to listen to. But then again, I found the same problems these guys have, with the first albums of Symphony X, so there is hope :-)

Excellent, driven and energetic album. I can definitely recommend it to those who like their music melodic with some heavy touches.
http://www.elrose.co.uk

Deventter is a young progressive metal band from Brazil with two albums in their pocket since now. The 7th dimension is their first album from 2007. From the begging I want to add that this first relase of the band is a good album but far from being excellent or exciting. Clearly influenced by bands like Dream Theater around( Train of thought era) and Pain of Salvation, two bands that are not among my fav prog metal outfits, so this album is in my opinion more like a follower then a real leader in this genre. While is quite good in places, what I don't like is that the album has very fiew instrumental passages, the talking instead is all over. Even the longest pieces from here, clocking around 12 min - A Paradox of Self Destruction is no diffrent, I mean talk talk and talk and only when the pieces is almost over around 8 min , they begun to show as some real instrumental arrangements, not bad, really, but I wanted more then 2 min from 12 to be instrumental, in the end an ok pieces. Now the best moments of the album are for sure in the four parts of the piece The longest day. For ex the part I - Sorrow is excellent, great piece, keyboard orientated with symphonic touches, it sounds like a real orchestra, great arrangements, the rest of the parts are also good. The band tries and most of the time succed to come with an enjoyble album, but sometimes they sound to modern for me, If I want a prog metal in my CD player I want something with blistering kyboards , beating drums and great vocals. a thing that only partial is here. Not realy bad for a debute but is long way 'till this guys will realy convinceing me that they worth attention in the future in this genre. 3 stars, a good one overall, but nothing really exciting or over the top, good and nothing more..
http://www.progarchives.com