Tracklist:                     
01 - World Of Confusion
02 - Disbeliever
03 - The Script
04 - Hero For One Day
05 - Watching Over You
06 - Unspoken Words
07 - A Moment Of Insanity



Bandmembers:          
Raymond Jansen - Vocals
Ron Mozer - Synths
Rene Schippers - Bass
Rene van Haaren - Drums
Sylvester Vogelenzang de Jong - Guitars



Websites:                    
www.ulysses-online.nl
www.cdistributions.com

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Ulysses - Symbiosis
Electric Productions 2003

Its not the worlds best kept secret that I am not a great fan of progmetal. And its not just the fact that it sometimes seems as if a prog drummer cant keep up a proper beat, hell most of the time the instrumentalists in progmetal are extremely good... but when they all start playing at the same time is when the shit hits the fan.

However, with Ulysses its different, although the drums are still erm.. well prog I must say that the musicians play pretty well together and seem to form a strong unity..

Ulysses who come from the same country as yours truly got rather good reviews on their previous release the mini cd Electric and now the time was right to release their first full-length album. On Symbiosis almost everything you see and hear is done by the band itself.

The cd starts out with a lovely acoustic prelude and continues into a pretty slick prog metal tune, so far so good but then it happens, where I expected a change of beat I get treated with an up tempo song that sees his chances of becoming a hit get shot to hell as soon as the singer opens his mouth, a shame, because this song is really one of the best on the album music wise but the vocalist sings with so much vibrato in his, sometimes seemingly forced, high pitched screams. Maybe his voice just takes some getting used to, we'll see. Even though the music is good but has, at times, the tendency to get a bit boring at times. The guitar has this "Kansas" sound over them and the keyboard isn't really present in the faster parts in the songs and is mainly there to create and atmospheric feeling. However I can't seem to get pass the vocals, best example is the song "Watching Over You" that would be breathtakingly beautiful if it was sang differently.

This is the second album by the dutch formation and I think they surely have potential because music wise it reaches levels which go up with the higher ranks of progressive masters such as Dream Theater but then a notch or 2 heavier and less active keyboard work. Also the production is extremely good for an independent release and if you're a progmetal fan I surely advise you looking into them because as mentioned before maybe the vocals just take some time getting used to because the music, the production and the artwork is certainly worth the money!

  55/100

  Michael