Sieges Even
The Art Of Navigating By The Stars

Things have been going very well lately in the prog-metal music scene, with excellent albums being released one after another. Much of this credit goes to Inside Out (besides the artists, of course), the well-known German record label famous for distributing the works of great bands like Shadow Galley, Transatlantic, The Flower Kings, Pain Of Salvation, and Symphony X in Europe.

Certainly, the latest effort from the Germans (also) Sieges Even will contribute to raising the quality level of Inside Out's record catalog.

I confess it took me a while to fully understand "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars", but I can happily exclaim that it was truly worth it: we are indeed facing a great work. Sieges Even return from a significant period of absence from the music scene lasting 8 years (the last work, "Uneven", dates back to 1997), interrupted by the side project called "Looking Glass Self" in collaboration with Andre Matos from Angra... a project that met with moderate success but was soon abandoned due to Matos's solo career.

And so Sieges Even return home; brothers Alex and Oliver Holzwarth (drums and bass) together with Markus Steffen (guitar) enlist the Dutch singer Arno Menses and begin working on the pieces that would lead them to release this excellent "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars". Personally, I was not familiar with Menses before... and it’s a shame, as he has a clear and well-modulated voice that fits wonderfully into the music of Sieges Even.

Anyone who has listened to the band's past works knows that the Germans often got lost in crafting overly complicated structures, losing sight of the actual development of the song. "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars" shows us how this time they have learned to avoid such pitfalls, and indeed Steffen emphasized this improvement in the band's biography. It’s possible this change coincides with the decision to change singers... but we cannot know for sure.
In this work, Sieges Even show us all the talent and creativity they are capable of... evidence of this can be heard in the acoustic gem "The Ones Who Have Failed" or the hard and complex "The Weight".

Comparing this work with the best prog-metal releases of recent years, I place this work by Sieges Even at the top; "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars" easily surpasses the latest productions from Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Redemption, XsaviouR, and Flagship.

Yes, you read that correctly...