SIEGES EVEN – Paramount

This album was anxiously awaited by the German Prog scene. The last output from Munich’s finest Metal band, The Art Of Navigating By The Stars, can rightfully be considered one of the best Prog albums of all times, so the bar lay high for this new release. Fortunately, the band did not have to face any change in members, so the two brothers Holzwarth on drums and bass, who are the backbone of the band and two ingenious musicians, could again work with original guitar player Markus Steffen to compose another album in the wake of the aforementioned Navigating and three more before he left the band after 1991’s A Sense Of Change.

The interlude with a drastic change in style, sublimating in two albums Sophisticated and Uneven is forgotten, the only difference of the last releases towards the early album is singer Arno Menses — and what a difference! Menses has a clear, emotional, versatile voice that made Navigating the masterpiece it is, and he is no less brilliant on Paramount.

With that level of musicianship, the expectations of something extraordinary are more than justified. Although Paramount needs a couple of spins before it hits home, it can be said that the band accomplished the mission, although they failed in one regard: They could not write an album that is better than Navigating, which will remain the highlight in Sieges Even’s discography even now.

But, that by no means would indicate that one can bypass Paramount. That would be like saying all Dream Theater albums after Images And Words would not be worth buying, or all Queensryche releases since Operation Mindcrime. It is the same thing, where a band simply wrote a piece of work that they could never better afterwards, and Navigating may become just that for Sieges Even. But, Paramount gets close enough to warrant being bought instantly, so one does not miss out on one of this year’s top releases. Many songs will stick in your ears after listening to the album a couple of times, like the opening track “When Alpha And Omega Collide” or follow-up “Tidal.” Track 6 and 7, “Duende” and “Bridge To The Divine,” would even have fit perfectly on the album before, so Sieges Even does not start anew, but takes off where they stopped last time. The direction is toward a slightly mellower, more Melodic Rock style that even allows them to place a Proggy AOR ballad as track three on the album.

If a point of criticism can be found, it is the ambitious “Mounting Castles In The Blood Red Sky.” The instrumental incorporates Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, unfortunately the samples are used too often and push the music into the background in several sections of the track, although the musical ideas are wonderful. It just feels written with too much brain, and too little guts. The last song, “Paramount,” fortunately makes more than up for this. The longest song on the album is also a highlight and clearly underlines that Sieges Even have again asserted their claims for the Prog Rock throne.