Search - Voyager :: Univers

Utterly incredible

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 06/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not sure why, but it always seems like every time I'm blown away by a new (to me) band, they tend to be from Australia. It happened when I first heard Vanishing Point in 2000, again in 2004 when I discovered (far too late) the brilliance of Alchemist, and again this year when I first popped Voyager's latest album Univers into the CD player.



I listened to a few samples from this album and thought I had a pretty good idea what it would sound like. All I can say is that I got about one minute into the first song before I realized that my expectations just got thrown out the window. I was expecting a high quality melodic rock album, and that's definitely part of Voyager's sound, but so is progressive metal, gothic metal, atmospheric rock, and even death metal...that you can dance to. Seriously, this band is like throwing Nightingale, Vanishing Point, Borknagar, Type O Negative, HIM, and Sentenced in a blender.



I've been playing Univers pretty much non-stop since I got it, and am still amazed by what I'm hearing. The music is just crammed wall to wall with gorgeous melodies and atmospheric keyboards to die for, alongside metal riffs and well placed "used but not abused" death metal growls. The clean vocals, which make up the vast majority of the album, are just incredible. Daniel Estrin sounds like the love child of Vintersorg, Dan Swano, and Peter Steel (if Peter Steel wanted you to dance instead of kill yourself). The album is amazing from start to finish, and is one of those albums that is impossible to listen to while sitting still.



Univers is the most dynamic, innovative and exciting album I've heard in a long time. If you're a fan of any of the band's mentioned above, or are just an open-minded metal fan willing to take a chance, you must must MUST check this album out.

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