ABSTRACTA - T.R.I.P - 1998

Dream Theater is very popular in Italy, so you'll see many bands who are thying to imitate Dream Theater. Some bands have created their own sound (Eldritch is the best example) others are allmost dying in the technical difficulties. AbstractA is a band which is in the middle of those extreme sorts. T.R.I.P. is a six-track CD with an average tracktime of allmost 8,5 minutes! The first track (called T.R.I.P.) is a little masterpiece. Allmost 13 minutes of all kinds of progmetal. Form slow parts to speed parts. There are great 'fightings' between the guitars and the keys and especially the bass-player has to be mentioned. The frettles bass in this song is magnificent! I can better say that Luigi Tega is a magnificent bass-player. The vocalist has a nice voice. His lower tones are better than his higher tones, but the high tones are nog irritating. because of the sound, the low tones can be compared with James LaBrie.

'Distant' begins very slow with nice frettles bass and piano, but later the fat guitart will appear. Nice songstructures and choruses complete this song.

Another great song is the instrumental song 'The Disoriented Oriental'. Very technical but accessible. Great dominant keyboard parts, fat guitar rhythms and good changings of rhythm. At the end the influences of Dream Theater are very clear, but that doesn't make the song better or worse. This CD has a quite good production but I think that the budget for a next CD has to be a little higher, so the production will be clearer and that is very important for progressive metal. AbstractA has made with T.R.I.P. is a succeeded debut! I'll give 9 out of 10 points!
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