Anguish Germany

""Symmetry" by German progressive metal act Anguish is their second and last album. Released in 2002, it seems inspired by Fates Warning and Dream Theater a long with the genre of symphonic power metal in general.

This album may strike some as a run-of-the-mill traditional progressive metal album with a bunch of standard tracks on it. And perhaps that is the case, but I think that the songs on this album are most solid and they do contain some interesting twists and turns without ever reaching the level of ridiculous technicality. I think that "Symmetry" can be compared to the generic Symphony-X style album but with most of the cheesiness of Symphony-X being absent.

While I think that "Symmetry" is actually a good album, my problem is that the keyboards are too dominant - both in terms of volume (the kind of obscure the guitar) and in quantity. It is not that I have a problem with keyboards in metal, and I think that Marion Nießner actually does some cool stuff (I especially appreciate how she uses a lot of 80s sounds in many of her keyboard solos).

I would recommend this album to fans of traditional progressive metal, and I think that fans of power metal and traditional metal might also like it.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"