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Hailing from Germany, obscure Prog metallers Poverty's No Crime returned from a four year hiatus since their previous release, unleashing the sixth album entitled Save My Soul. For those not familiar, Poverty's No Crime play a style of Progressive Metal that blends a high level of catchiness with a heavy, sometimes crunchy guitar sound in the Dream Theater realm, soaring but nicely mixed keyboards all of which is performed at a predominantly mid tempo pace. A perfect example is album opener "Open Your Eyes" which features heavy riffs, solid mid tempo rhythms, powerful double bass, an incredibly catchy chorus line and the outstanding vocals of Volker Walsemann. Album namesake "Save My Soul" is another highlight which duplicates the same attributes previously mentioned relative to the aforementioned "Open Your Eyes". Other diamonds include the technically sound "In The Wait Loop" which displays lengthy instrumental passages and rich melodic overtones, the near radio friendly, yet still proggy "From A Distance" and the bombastic nine minute album closer "Break The Spell"

The only criticism I can muster is that while there are many memorable and catchy songs, there are a few that unfortunately miss the target and end up falling a bit flat. Moreover, I'm sure some of the anal prog purists will react with a stuffy nose in the air "I've seen this blueprint before" type of mindset. With that being said, Poverty's No Crime's style will certainly not reshape the genre, but from a purely musical standpoint Save My Soul is an album that contains way more hits than misses, thus fans of melodic Progressive Metal should find plenty to appreciate.