Dante - Saturnine. 2010 Germany

Saturnine is the second album from the German progressive metal band Dante, who appear to be still kicking around. At this point in their career - and maybe still the case, as this is the only album I've heard by them - Dante are 100% in the Dream Theater camp. The James LaBrie styled crooning and piano ballads of 'Drifting' and 'Maybe One Day' coupled with 'Never Return' featuring these enlightened lyrics: "Images and Words", are just the beginning of the clues.

Dante do not have the chops of Dream Theater, so they have to make up for that with a bit more creativity in the songwriting, and this plays to their benefit. In addition, Dante are a bit heavier than Dream Theater on average. The guitar and the bass tones plus the monosyllabic keyboard solos recall Awaken's opener '6:00'. Take away the ballads, and you still have over 50 minutes of solid prog metal. No chances are taken, and everything fits neatly into the box, but it's certainly professional and easy on the ears. A little more imagination would have likely resulted in a half star bump.