IVORY TOWER - BEYOND THE STARS - 2000

This review nearly would have ended with this word, but I thought that at least some information won't hurt, so here we go:

In the back of your brain one name is almost omnipresent: DREAM THEATER. But contrary to many other bands, with a reason, because what IVORY TOWER have created here is Progressive Metal on the highest level! As all ten tracks are equal in quality, it doesn't matter, which song you might try to point out, but to make it easier for you, I'll try anyway.

The opener "Silence" lives off the great vocals and the heavy riffs, while "Secret In Me" contains maybe the perfect balance between heaviness and melody, catchiness and demand, a masterpiece! In the nearly twelve-minute "Foreboding" caressing keyboards meet heavy guitars, interrupted by a very emotional instrumental part in the middle, before returning to the theme of the beginning again. And "Game Of Life" is, well, what is it? Emotional? Or balladesque? Ah, who cares, it's great.

To waste any more words would be just that: a waste. All people, who are searching for a band that reminds them of the older DREAM THEATER, but without copying them, just have to get "Beyond The Stars"!
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