Third Eye takes you on a kind of 10 song psychiatric journey. Starting with "Solitary Confinement" and ending at "The Psychiatrist". A lot of times we at Powerofmetal get a promo 2 or 3 weeks before release date and as a reviewer you have to listen and judge rather fast. Not the new release of Third Eye; it has been in my player for about 2 months now and there was no haste at all.

Surprises happen suddenly and unexpected, that's why they are called surprises. The music of Third Eye is one of those surprises. They are progressive, they are metal, aggressive, powerful, serene, groovy... and combining this all, almost original. Vocalist Per Johansson is the first one who protrudes. He has a few, yet very variable singing styles. A powerful and a bit aggressive style, a creepy one, a clean one and a very high falsetto voice. The last one reminds me of James Rivera and there are also some similarities with Rob Halford and even bits of King Diamond in his voice. In the more aggressive style the name Kelly Sundown Carpenter (Darkology) enters my mind. Another thing that makes the songs better, are the keyboard parts. Some of them are played by Finn Zierler (Beyond Twilight), the rest was taken care of by Tommy Hansen (who has also done the mixing and mastering).

Musically they travel through serene parts, creepy slow songs ("Six Feet Under"), aggressive riff-oriented songs ("Psychological Breakthrough"), they use fine hooks in rhythms, piano intermezzos and they have the ability to create a kind of tension in every song (just listen to "Eye of Envy"). All members do a fine job and even after 20 times the album still don’t get boring.

After Anoxia, Ripe and Boil, another big surprise from Denmark, but I don't mind, as long as they don't surprise us (I'm from Holland) in South Africa. This album is food for every progressive metal fan that swears by the last Darkology CD, also Beyond Twilight fans should consider giving this one a listen. My debut album of the month!