Sun Caged
The Lotus Effect
Rating
Style: Progressive Metal
Release date: 17 June, 2011
Playing time: 71:59
 

It took the band four years to release this third album; latest album is their 2007 album ‘Artemisia’. I have to say it was worth waiting for every 71 minutes of music on this album. It is prog-metal at its best. Influences of metal, prog, jazz, ambient and fusion can be traced back in the several songs.

"Seamripper" starts very heavy and changes throughout the song in the real Sun Caged musical sound. You can say that this is their most heavy/metallic album so far, but on the other hand also their most serene one too. The songs of Sun Caged have always been rather complex and have many tempo-changes and strange structures. Paul Adrian Villarreal's vocals are again very good on this album and Marcel Coenen's guitar parts are again worth licking off your fingers. It is quite rightly that they shared the stage with Pain of Salvation and just a few months ago they supported Fates Warning. The most splendid thing about this band is that they don't sound like any other prog-metal band. Of course there are similarities with some of the bigger bands in the genre, but they never sound like any of them.

The song that really sticks out is the title track. An epic song separated in 8 musical pieces. The song keeps your ears focused every second, it never gets bored or makes you desire for the end. This is the best prog-metal album made in Holland since the Cirrha Niva album. Even the soft and easy listening track "Reductio ad Absurdum" can fascinate me. Again the vocals of Paul and the beautiful solo see to that. If I have to mention a band that sometimes enters my mind, it would be Six Minute Century, but actually they just do sound like Sun Caged. Food for the real prog-fan!

Keywords for this album: excellent, progressive, metal, fusion, jazz, ambient, good songs, their best so far.


Tracklist

01. Seamripper (& the Blanket Statement)
02. Tip-Toe the Fault-Line
03. Ashes to Ear
04. Shades of Hades
05. Reductio ad Absurdum
06. On Again / Off Again
07. Lotus
08. Pareidolized (The Ocean in the Shell)
09. Parasol
10. Wave the Banner
11. Fish Afraid of Drowning                                12. Moebius Knot                                               13. Full Circle                                                    14. Let it Wash Away (The Lotus Effect)

Label: Lion Music
Distribution: Border Music Distribution AB
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 15 June, 2011
Website: www.myspace.com/suncaged