Ivory Tower - Beyond The Stars

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Limb Music Products
Catalog Number: LMP 004 018
Format: CD
Total Time: 61:34:00

This is the second CD by German prog metal band Ivory Tower. They surprised everyone with their critically acclaimed DT influenced self-titled debut CD a few years back, where they gained a lot of fans as well, tripping around Europe with their labelmates Mob Rules.

This CD shows a band in growth. The band seems more mature in their approach and at the same time more confident about their own sound. The DT influence is not as obvious, if not completely gone. Do not be afraid, the sound of Ivory Tower is still there, only better than ever and I think that they with this album will take the step up to the major league. While I found some of the songs on the debut on the verge of being cheesy, this is not the case here. The guitars are heavy and powerful, offering plenty of punchy staccato riffing. The guitars are tastefully supplemented by piano-like and atmospheric keyboards. Cool time-changes, massive grooves and good mid-ranged vocals. This time vocalist Andre Fischer is more close to fellow countryman Andy B. Franck (Ivanhoe, Symphorce) than James LaBrie.

The melody-lines and choruses is melodic as hell and are easily accessible, yet extremely catchy. Although they do have their own sound, they have adapted the best of bands like Conception, Ivanhoe, Dreamscape and Atmosphere.

The production is powerful and crystal clear, with all instruments present. Fans of catchy melodic semi-prog metal will love this CD. Ivory Tower doesn't bring anything new into the scene, but what they do, they do convincingly well. Everything about this CD is much better than the first, and a huge step in the right direction for Ivory Tower.

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]

Tracklisting:
Silence (6:52) / Secret In Me (6:04) / Foreboding (11:50) / Game Of Life (3:53) / Peeping Tom (5:02) / Beyond The Stars (7:26) / When Thoughts Are Running Wild (5:54) / Flight Into The Self (6:03) / Treehouse Theme (1:21)

Musicians:
Andre Fischer - vocals, percussion
Sven Boge - guitars, keyboard programming
Stephan Laschetzki - bass
Thorsten Thrunke - drums
Stephan Machon ? keyboards

Discography:
Ax 'n Sex - Victim Of Time (1996)
Ivory Tower (1998)
Beyond The Stars (2000)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin DE

Added: January 1st 2005
Reviewer: Bjørnar Bevolden
Score:
Artist website: www.ivorytower.de
Hits: 3937
Language: english