Have you ever heard of Dolly the Sheep? She was the first successfully cloned animal. Now we have the first successfully cloned metal band: Awake. This British metal act has been proclaimed to be: "The saviours of the British progressive metal scene" (as if there has ever been one?) - Well I won't go that far, but one statement about them; "The English Evergrey" is very true!

'Illumination' is their sophomore album, and they have recorded it in Gothenburg with Tom S. Englund at the helm and his fellow Evergrey compatriot Henrik Danhage is also appearing on the album. And their style is shaped in the Evergrey mould - so are they simply ripping Evergrey off one might ask? No, even though they sound a lot like them, they still manage to distance themselves from them.

They are not the first band ever to wear their influences on the outside, and the comparison with Evergrey is mostly due to the fact that vocalist Simon Shedwell sounds awfully close to Tom in all areas.

Awake has delivered a well balanced album with 11 well crafted songs with balls, atmosphere and heaviness, Tom S. Englund has given them the perfect sound for this style - he should know shouldn't he? And just like it’s the case with Evergrey, Awake is guitar driven with powerful guitar riffs nicely complimented with fine keyboard parts and a solid rhythm section that's laying the foundation for these strong and powerful songs.

I will never call them original nor innovative, but their music is great power metal with a strong progressive edge and I enjoy listening to this album. If you can look past the obvious influence and just sit back and listen to this powerful music, then I am sure you'll discover just how great this album really is...