Extension of the Wish

When I first was recommended Extension of the Wish, I was absolutely floored by the overwhelming guitar work. Johan Reinholdz is incredible, from the first riff to "The Words Unspoken" until the very last track. At the age of 20 years, he had written all the music and lyrics - guitar, bass, keyboard, drums - for Extension of the Wish, an amazing feat. Despite a vocalist setback, the rest of the band comes together nicely. Lawrence Mckrory from Darkane sings cleanly through the album, nothing too fancy, and the drums by Thomas Lejon tie everything together with no flaws.

Still, in light of everything else, I'd have to say Reinholdz's guitar work is the main reason I enjoy this album so much. He busts out insane solos, like "In the Deepest of Waters" but nothing seems overly forced or self-serving, as Dream Theater tends to do. His mixture of restraint and technique carries this album beautifully.

I'd recommend this for any fan of the noble instrument known as the electric guitar, as well as any metalhead or prog fan. Everything is well-balanced, with all the parts of the band coming together and complementing each other. One of the best albums I own.

This first album from Andromeda gets a lot of flack. They had quite a lot going against them. One most notable and talked about thing was that they had to find a session vocalist without enough time to really teach him the songs. So even the band found this album sub-par due to circumstances. The album, so they say, suffers because of Lawrence Mackrory’s vocals.

I disagree. I find his monotone portrayal of the songs emotionally engaging. In my eyes this album stood out from the plethora of prog-outings at the time because of this. It was refreshing. When I heard that they were going to rerecord the album with Fremberg, I was actually kind of insulted. How can they take a masterpiece like that, complete with the one element that made them stand above the pack, and rework it?

Then again I don’t like it when they rerecord vocals on any album because of a singer. I still own the original Crowned In Terror (The Crown.) It seems like a slap in the face to the singer in the original.

But I digress. Getting back to Andromeda. Typically prog of this type isn’t my thing, but this album served as a gateway of sorts for the gems that lay within the genre as a whole. Reinholdz guitar work here left a memorable impression on me, especially on the last two songs. The keyboarding of Martin Hedin is up front but appropriate, never taking the limelight when they shouldn’t. The whole album is mixed rather well for a ‘rushed job.’

Though the shining element in this album, for me anyway, is the haunting vocals of Mackrory. The second album with the more traditional prog vocals didn’t really captivate me the same way as this one did. But to each his own I guess. This album deserves more attention that it gets.

With the legions of shameless keyboa... I mean, progressive metal bands out there that feel no guilt in duplicating the formulas brought to light by their progenitors, you'd think that there might be one or two that actually manage to bring something new to the table... and you'll probably still be thinking the very same thing by the time the sun goes supernova and takes out the galaxy as we know it.

Andromeda really don't bring much of anything to the table that can be considered new. Their music is beyond blatant and completely derivative of standard order progressive metal - guitar/keyboard duels, massive unisons, incredible guitar heroics, extended instrumental interludes, an exceptionally precise and tight rhythm section, and so forth. However, even though there's not much you haven't heard here from a musical standpoint, it must be said that these guys perform with such immense drive and intensity that the same old shit manages to sound like something utterly new and mind-blowing.

Guitarist Johan Reinholdz is the resident attention whore. He overplays to the extreme. Fortunately, Johan's immaculate sense of melody, captivating note choice, band synergy, and sheer technical prowess are all so tasteful and perfect that I simply cannot bring myself to reprimand him. I fell in love with his guitar from the first seconds of the first song on this album, "The Words Unspoken", with that impossible series of notes that could have been the backdrop to the sun rising over a sprawling cybernetic landscape, or the preface to some epic conflict. Martin Hedin on keyboards goes for a very futuristic sound throughout the album, thankfully avoiding the realm of pure cheese - for the most part anyway.

Drummer Thomas Lejon stands aside from many drummers in this genre. In fact, after spinning this disc a dozen or so times, I came to the realization that the drums here actually carry the album in ways that are initially obscured by the massive guitar presence. Thomas has a history of playing with highly technical and rhythmically atypical bands, and he molds his impressive abilities to Andromeda's music in a way that empowers the entire band and grabs the listener indefinitely, never humbling himself to such an extent that the music turns into a one-dimensional display of instrumental wankery. You won't hear him fade into the background while Johan solos his arms off - instead, he will consistently apply interesting off-time foot patterns, stellar cymbal work, and various rhythmic irregularities. This, along with his leanings toward non-repetition, prevents the music from becoming stale and monotonous.

This album is easily recommendable to Dream Theater fans, but that recommendation doesn't really do this band justice. Andromeda display a sense of substance, synergy, and excitement that's lacking in a vast majority of DT clones - they stand on a tier of their own within the genre.

For a prog debut album from Andromeda, these guys sure as hell blow bands like Dream Theater out of the water.

The song structure's here are actually interesting with not one of the songs being boring or overly repetitive. The rising guitar hero Johan Reinholdz shows lots of promise here with amazing but not overly masturbatory, and also shows a pretty good riffing style. Drummer Thomas Lejon is amazing on this album. He shows great control and restraint behind the set, knowing when to let loose and when to hold back. Lejon can play both blazing drum fills, but can also create interesting drum rhythm's, all while sliding in and out of time changes. The keyboards are at least as on par with Dream Theater. I can't really judge how good the bass is, but i can say that it provides a solid groudning along with the fantastic drumming. Temporary vocalist Lawrence Mackrory(Ex-Darkane) shows how good is clean singing voice here. He shows emotive vocals, but never resorts to wailing like other prog vocalists. It's really a shame that he wasn't the permanent vocalist.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this album to prog fans.

Album Highlights - In The Deepest Waters, Crescendo of Thoughts

What originally led me to this band was their name and their album cover. I saw it on one of those lists on Amazon.com or CDNow. I'm a geek for celestial images and such things so I was intrigued so I checked them out. I was blown away. To me, Andromeda is the epitome of the prog. metal sound.

This album incorporates excellent technical ability from all the musicians and molds the sound in such a way that makes it interesting and uniquely theirs while not getting repetitive. The vocalist's unique, often warped-sounding voice greatly adds to this uniqueness, but sadly he was only stepped in for the recording sessions because the band could not find a permanent vocalist. The lyrics are typical of a prog band. They're not outstanding, but they aren't bad and the rhythm of the vocals enhances them and makes them better in fact that they are simple sitting there on the page. There are quite a few catchy choruses.

Every single song on this album is solid and I love each one.

Andromeda's Extension of the Wish- clearly one of the better progressive Metal albums to be released in 2001, a disc which simply screams excellent musicianship and the highest quality. featuring some of the more technical and brilliant guitar work in Metal today, blazing melodic and technical solos which show a good balance of skill and outright emotion. The vocals by ex Darkane member Lawrence Mckrory show a lot of emotion and blend perfectly with the tracks while thought to be the weak spot in the band by any it gives Andromeda a unique sound. (although they have recently released the album with a more generic power Metal type vocalist which knocks down the quality a peg or two) Another perceived downfall of the record is the amount of songs featuring only seven tracks one may feel short shrifted or cheated because one yearns for more of the quality material, but actually the small amount of tracks adds to the overall tightness and ever consistant nature of the album. With such a smashing debut one can only wonder what will this Swede outfit achieve in future releases or if they will in fact ever surpass the high quality on this one. This is a recommended album to not only Prog Metal fans, but Metalheads in genertal should own this one.