Daedalus: The Never Ending Illusion

My first thought on hearing Daedalus was how much this band sounds like Dream Theater. Lots of "sick" musicianship on display, plenty of diverse time signatures and heavy guitar mixed with tasteful keyboards. At first, I thought Daedalus might be too close to DT for comfort, but on subsequent listens, I found I could hear contrasts in their sound as opposed to Dream Theater, most noticeably in the vocals. I've never been a big James LaBrie fan, nothing against the man personally, he is certainly talented, but his voice just does nothing all that special for me.

Davide Merletto, in contrast to Mr. LaBrie, has a vocal style that is much more to my liking, he's got plenty of range, and not just in the higher registers, Mr. Merletto seems comfortable in any register. The rest of the band also seems comfortable playing a variety of styles, their influences are quite evident, besides Dream Theater, I detected some Rush, perhaps a little Maiden among some of the other bands of the NWOBHM. But perhaps that does make them a bit formulaic, though I am enjoying Daedalus more and more each listen, they really are not blazing many new trails here. It is good solid Progressive Metal, with lyrics rather typical for the genre, and a little too much of the standard "chugga-chugga" guitar-riffing. Unfortunately on Illusion I found nothing inspiring enough to establish Daedalus as a band that brings a new fresh approach to progressive metal that no other current band on the scene can match.

I am sure that Daedalus is striving to bring that unique new take on progressive metal, they sure do display plenty of promise and tons of chops on The Never Ending Illusion. To me it seems as if they are still a band looking for that unique sound on a CD which will launch them into the leading position enjoyed by their influences like Dream Theater. Perhaps they will find that on their next effort, but to say Daedalus achieved that on this album would only be an illusion.