A very, very promising start from an interesting band.

This debut album from Danish melodic proggers Mythery tweaked my curiosity right from the start, and not just because it seemed on paper like another very good prog metal concept album. No, what piqued my interest was that alongside the usual instruments you'd find on this type of release (drums, bass, keyboards etc), there was listed in pride of place, alongside the guitars, one lead violin. Yes, you read it right, Lead Violin. And you know, as strange as that sounds, it also works with the bands music very well indeed. So using violin solos instead of shredding guitar ones every few minutes, adds new and different panoramas to the music of Mythery, which they go on to exploit throughout 'TAOTB'.

The album itself is split into two distinct parts, the first four tracks seemingly stand alone songs that finds the band moving between melodic prog metal ('Another Universe', 'Epoch Of Destruction') and melodic prog rock/metal ('The Crusade', 'Godforsaken'). Then the last half of the album is taken up by the five part title track 'The Awakening Of The Beast', which is where the band really come alive for me. They mix slivers of prog, metal rock and jazz all together and come up with almost thirty minutes of pure class.

Taken as a whole, the song from 'PT1 Overture' to 'PT5 The Words Of Salvation' reminded me so many times of old school Kansas, with the classically trained Michala Hoj's violin, conjuring up memories of when I first heard the great Robbie Steinhardt. And even though this track is made up of five parts, I think it must be heard, felt and digested in just one sitting, and when you do this you will see that if Mythery continue to write songs to this very high standard, then the world could so easily be their oyster.

A very, very promising start from an interesting band. Prog fans I'm sure will enjoy this release but it also has the potential to be enjoyed by many who might not think that prog is for them. Personally I'm loving this release and really looking forward to album number two and what Mythery might come up with in the future.

Ian Johnson