Existence

Sitting in a bus for a 5-hour trip, I write this review exactly while i am listening to this album. I don't want to miss something, or to forget how great this album is. I'll make this simple and separate this review into a few categories which are: Similarities, Production, and Songs.

Similarities
First, there is no way, while listening to this album, that we can't think of Green Carnation. The dark, atmospheric feeling is crawling into your skin and lets its creepy yet relaxing taste in your mouth. A bit of Porcupine Tree, sometimes riffs à la Dream Theater, psychedelic movements that reminds Pink Floyd's works, then you can hear this calm soothing voice that can only evoke Green Carnation vocalist. Strange intros, acoustic parts, double-bass drum in the background of a sky tearing solo, the prog rock / prog metal sound is there and the furtive keyboard is sometimes there to remind it to you.

Production
As clear as crystal, as sharp as a knife, the production is over-the-top for this kind of band and it is very surprising. The voice is always clear and sounds like someone is whispering in my ears in real-time. The drums are perfect, and the stereo effect is nice, since it's rare that I'm aware of such a thing. Guitar, is also always greatly played, and perfectly rendered.
The first seconds of listening made me smile, because I knew I was listening to a quality product.

Songs
The overall structure of the album is well done and has to be taken as a whole. Without being a concept album, each song is a part of an entity, each song needs each others. There is a perfect balance in the songs since the start to the end, and as I said, there is a relaxing feeling at the end of the listening, a feeling of satisfaction, of accomplishment.

Great work from Dark Suns, i will look forward for the other albums, since this one is a masterpiece and should be listen by all Green Carnation fans that are sad by their separation.

This album is one of the finest pieces of progressive metal you will ever get to hear. Dark Suns have created an epic masterpiece that combines beautiful melodic tunes, deep rich singing and also dark heavy metal rhythms.

Existence is a significant step forward after "Swanlike," their first full length album in that they got rid of lead singer Niko Knappes' death metal growls, and replaced it entirely with his clean vocals which, while they did feature in "Swanlike" they weren't as prominent. What they have kept - and for this I am grateful - is the haunting yet strangely beautiful tunes that come of that unique blend of deep guitar riffing, synthesised keyboards and the aforementioned singing. An excellent example of this would be "You, A Phantom Still" which starts off with an orchestral style violin piece, played in a minor key, giving it the haunting feel I mentioned earlier. After just overa minute and a half of this classical piece, the guitars and drums hit in. Yet, one can still hear the violins continuing over the top for pretty much the entire track.

Yet Dark Suns rarely go that heavy, and normally I love heaviness, in this album it doesn't seem to matter. There is still a darkness and edge to it, without ever pounding out heavy riffs and drumming. Songs such as the powerful final track, "One Endless Childish Day" incorporate double bass drumming, with soaring violins, down tuned guitar riffs altogether to create a dark yet somehow emotionally moving piece (the track starts off with a sad sounding piano piece)

The album flows incredibly from one track to the next, and it is through this that I claim it is Epic - for starts, eight out of the 11 tracks are over five minutes long, and out of those three of them are over ten minutes long each. This epic feel is heightened as you transition from one track to the next, as they fit so well together. The album progresses perfectly from one track to the next, and I would recommend that the listener has to hear the album in it's entirety from start to finish, to get the full benefits of this.

With Existence, Dark Suns have shown the world perhaps the lighter side of metal, without ever compromising the metal and progressive feel. It is a stunning album that soars from strength to strength, and I can't recommend it enough.

...Let me introduce yourself to something that you'll enjoy for the rest of your life if you're a fan of high quality progressive metal. Existence is the high hope for a genre that nowadays didn't give us that kind of record that will leave our hears imploring for more sound of the hi-fi. Well, till now, this is the biggest album of the year in the genre, and certainly it will be the best till december. Why? Because cds like this have more musical art in one music than one whole album of some bands in the progressive scene. Imagine 77 min that equal parts of opeth, disillusion, pain of salvation, porcupine tree and dead soul tribe mix the original touch of this german band. The five men were performing last year in the large line-up shows of conterranean Disillusion, and gave the gigs such a light and taste that the attendance will certainly record the events. One of them was filmed, and certainly would be edited in dvd late this year. What you hear is what you always ever wanted to it: majority long songs with various moments of melody, passion, rage, high percussion, clean vocals, power vs. calm, dark ambients, string passages... uh, this is real cinemascope for your mind, and if your mind is closed, I'm sure that it will open just after the hearing of this stunning record. Very good production also, that gives the opus the perfect transmission of the entire message of pure art rock-prog metal... I don't have much more to say, I just want you to hear this record since the beginning till the end with your eyes closed and totally emerged in Dark Suns sound. If Back to Times of Splendor of Disillusion was for me the debut of 2004, Existence would be certainly one of my favorites of 2005... arty metal for the open-minded. Check out and enjoy this piece of art. The meaning of existence is in dark suns...