• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

After the wonderful Stream Of Consciousness, Italian Prog-Power masters Vision Divine took a new direction, bringing with it the same melodic and expressive nature of their previous record and thrusting it into a futuristic concept album about eternal life and the ethics of technology. The result was the arresting opus known as The Perfect Machine, and it's not usual for bands to hammer out masterpieces back to back, but Olaf Thorsen and gang did it here, so genuine fans of Progressive Power Metal had better slap their wallets back on the counter. This is your next purchase.

Using a crystal clear production job courtesy of Mr. Tolkki, Vision Divine made things simpler here as well as structurally more interesting; within the limits of a single song they go from wild double-kicking Power Metal to reflective Prog and even some AOR, all tightly sealed with a grand dosage of melody in both the instruments and the vocals, which are as good here as they were on Stream Of Consciousness. As a whole, the album is certainly heavier in the riff department, but the melodies themselves are catchier and more direct, yet the masterful Michele Luppi goes to great lengths to keep the vocal lines appealing with plenty of strange phrases and patterns that gives songs like the epic opening title track and its following partner "1st Day Of A Never-Ending Day" a lot of playability. Again, every track here is original and captivating, with enough instrumental ingenuity to keep your attention, but Luppi is once again the star, and on "Land Of Fear" he surpasses any performance thus far. Seriously, this song is one of the catchiest they've done, and while it's more of a rock song than a metal anthem, it shows Vision Divine at their most thoughtful and elegant.

Science-fiction and Prog-Power collide here to form yet another genre classic, and if you haven't heard it yet, go out and get it. It's not often I bestow albums with the 5+ mark, so trust me when I say this is worthy of your time. Yet another work of art from one the genre's greatest bands.