Dark Water - Human (Classic Progressive Metal and side-project of Harmony)

The latest album from off-shoot of Harmony, Dark Water, is AMAZING!  Sonically speaking, this is one of the best modern prog albums I've ever heard.  The mix is perfect and all the elements of the instruments come through pristinely and robustly.  The song "In Front of You" exemplifies this the most as the power of just the production of the instruments will blow you away (and it's not even the best song).



The drummer is a true pro comes up with some creative fills and seems spot on in every song.  Henrik Bath's marvelous vocals are dazzling and dynamic like you'd expect from him as well as being surprisingly soulful from a prog metal vocalist.
But the real star of the show is Magnus Holmberg who just might be the best prog keyboardist since Rick Wakeman.  His tones are incredibly tasteful and seem to fit the mood of the songs perfectly.  He doesn't go off all the time or try to be a guitar player to the listener's annoyance (like a certain keyboardist from a certain prog band), but plays the right note or chord progression at the right time with a great tone. He's almost always emotive where he needs to be and comes up with a brilliant range of sounds uniquely for every song.

If you're on the fence, don't hesitate.  The opener, "A New Beginning" is their best rocker ever.  And "Reflections of A Mind" might be the greatest prog metal song of the past 10 years...

I was never that much into them but I do think this is their best album by far.
I definitely prefer this type of melodic prog to the overly busy, overly cluttered stuff (like what Dream Theater has been doing for the past 20+ years).

That said, I would not consider Darkwater a Christian band per se.

Constantine wrote:I was never that much into them but I do think this is their best album by far.
I definitely prefer this type of melodic prog to the overly busy, overly cluttered stuff (like what Dream Theater has been doing for the past 20+ years).

That said, I would not consider Darkwater a Christian band per se.

Concur.  More like Christians in a band.  Angelic Warlord labeled them 'positive metal' and said it took him months of listening to sort through all the music to write a review.