A five piece band from Germany, Sanvoisen plays a brand of power/progressive metal that has many similarities to Queensryche, Conception, Superior and Lethal. The vocal melodies sound like they're Queensryche-influenced and the heavy rhythms recall Conception, Superior and Lethal. Sanvoisen also boasts an effective two guitar attack and a vocalist in Vagelis Maranis who has pretty good range.

A nice, crunchy rocker, "Spirits" benefits from some excellent rhythm guitar and aggressive vocals making it one of the best songs on the disc. An up-tempo track, "Mindwars" rocks from start to finish building upon more solid rhythms. With a bit of funk and some heavy rhythms, "Behind My Dreams" is a solid, crunchy metal song in a Lethal/Conception vein. A quieter outing than the first three tracks, the excellent "The Difference" has some quirky yet catchy vocal melodies. Featuring heavy bass lines, "Soul Seasons" exhibits a beautiful chorus and more solid song writing while "Against the Fears" is a powerful and aggressive track that has some nicely done vocal melodies and a good performance from lead singer Maranis. "Broken Silence" is a nice flamenco flavored ballad that moves along fairly swiftly and avoids the cliches that plague many ballads while the powerful "Waiting for the Rain" delivers more crunch and cool bass lines. Finally, the heavy rocker "Somebody's Stolen My Name", which isn't as good as most of the material on this CD, sports some superb guitar work.

Sanvoisen has made a good disc of solid power/prog metal. While this type of rhythm heavy power/prog isn't new, Sanvoisen puts enough of their individuality and style into the disc to differentiate it from others in the same genre. And even though there aren't any all-time great songs on the disc, there aren't any weak ones, either. Every song is good. So if you're looking for solid Queensryche inspired metal, pick up Soul Seasons.

Ratings and Wrap Up:
8.0
(a solid metal album)

Review by Joseph White-


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