Andromeda – Manifest Tyranny

Fifth album for the Malmö based progressive metal quintet from Sweden, in a ten year time. Andromeda have tried to shock the world twice with their first two albums, first with their great debut ”Extension Of The Wish” in 2001, which was a very good start for the band and you would easily be caught by the progressive frenzy of their compositions (especially on the instrumental part of the songs, these guys seemed to be out of place with what they were playing) and what’s more, their second album ”II=I” on 2003, gave them the boost they wanted to be characterized as one of the best newcoming progressive metal bands of the new decade (back then). So they can’t complain for not having the share in publicity they rightfully gained with their worth and great ideas.

Then for some strange reason, fans seemed to forget about them. I don’t know if it was the three year absence until their third album ”Chimera” (which was also a very good album, as the previous two, but they clearly had lost the momentum of their success and it was not greeted as much as their first two albums), I don’t know if it was the fact that the next album ”The Immunity Zone” in 2008 found them a little repetitive, surely though, they were not in the first line of bands to get yourself busy with anymore. On the other hand, they didn’t really care about that and now, three years after the previous album, we have their new effort, entitled ”Manifest Tyranny”, ten songs which last about 64 minutes and have a lot to offer and a lot to talk about. Let’s take things in order.

The album opens with the crunching ”Preemptive Strike”, a song which is only two and a half minutes and sets the stage of the play that is presented to you for more than an hour. Very heavy and quite insane (the two basic elements in Andromeda’s music all these years), it’s the song they made a video for and a good way to start headbanging while listening to the album. The next two songs are the classic case where Andromeda use their skills and make things better for all of us, with ”Lies R Us” and ”Stay Unaware” being the dynamic twin force that take the album and prepare for a great album. The continuation ain’t the same, as ”Survival Of The Richest” and ”Chosen By God” may be a little smaller in duration, but the feeling that something’s missing is the first thought while listening to them.

The long track of the album which is ”Flase Flag” and gets close to ten minutes, proves that this band surely succeeds more in longer songs, a very demanding one that might tire you a bit, if you are not very familiar with such sounds. The last four songs of the album play between seven and eight minutes and they give an extra boost to ”Manifest Tyranny”, especially ”Asylum” (the crazy Andromeda atmosphere we were talking about before) and ”Play Dead” have some parts where you really put your hat out to them. The last two tracks of the album, the mellow ”Go Back To Sleep” and ”The Antidote” close the whole performance in a very progressive way and in the end, the listener is filled with questions concerning the consistency of this release and if he finally liked it as much as he wanted.

In conclusion, Andromeda have released once again a very good album, with some killer parts inside their songs, with great performances from all members, especially vocalist David Fremberg and drummer Thomas Lejon, without this meaning the rest don’t do everything they can. But in the end, weighing things makes you decide that you can surely listen to something that will stick in your mind more easily and with a more concentrated approach in the whole music. It turns out that 64 minutes are a lot about an album and once you’re not a master of having the exact point in each song, each part of it, then it’s quite an obstacle in your way that the band is responsible about. Surely it’s not rubbish, but allow me to prefer their previous four albums more than ”Manifest Tyranny”. Maybe next time they will do better. And maybe you will like this more than I did. Give it a try in any case, you never know.