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Dante: Saturnine

Progressive Rock/Metal

Rating: 4.5/5.0

ProgRock Records
www.myspace.com/danteprog
www.danteband.de
Review: Craig Hartranft,  06.14.2010

With their sophomore effort, Saturnine, German progressive band Dante will probably put prog purists (and elitists) into prog's seventh heaven. Saturnine is bolder, more immense, and even more complex than their debut The Inner Circle. Fortunately, for the uninitiated or sometime prog listener this work isn't too intricate to baffle. But if any volume is close to being so complicated to aurally obtuse. By example, the opener All My Life has many compositional twists and often shifts gears so quickly to cause whiplash. Yet as a whole it sounds good. Conversely, Last delivers on a more pedestrian level with its riff heaviness, strong vocals and vocal arrangements, and qualified melodic catchiness. Then a piece like borrows from early Dream Theater and makes it knottier by those occasional quick shifts. Later, take a deep breath, suspend your credulity, and open your mind because the 19 minute Vanessa is probably the most prophetic and imaginative prog you will hear this year.

Call it complex, complicated, the edge of genius, or the borders of madness, Dante's Saturnine is a devastatingly vigorous work of progressive music. My suggestion? Allow for repeated listening. I think you will be both challenged and inspired. Quite recommended!

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Call it complex, complicated, the edge of genius, or the borders of madness, Dante's Saturnine is a devastatingly vigorous work of progressive music. My suggestion? Allow for repeated listening.

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]