Search - Superior :: Behind

Brilliant but unaffordable.

Shane Carey | Phoenix, AZ USA | 07/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Superior's sound includes some really well-played keyboards, but is clearly guitar-driven. A gritty sort of 80s guitar tone, heavy but not overly dry, is complemented by vocals with an operatic approach, but with a little extra rasp in the lower register -- perhaps a bit like Ray Alder, but really I can't think of anyone who sounds very similar. The average song length falls in the 8-10 minute range, a pretty balanced mixture of instrumental and vocal sections. A mixture of Queensryche and Dream Theater influences is clearly audible, but after a couple of listens the comparisons dry up and the original voice shines through. There are a couple of slightly silly moments, but no real low points, no filler, no songs or even parts of songs that I want to skip over. For all the diversity of their subject matter and compositional approaches, it's a very unified and consistently enjoyable collection of prog-metal. No five-star masterpiece, but four stars are richly deserved.This disc came out around the time of Dream Theater's "Awake", when a lot of people were still very new to the genre of progressive metal and were scouring the newsgroups and other sources for any and all remotely similar material. Superior were up there with Cynic and Atheist on "must-hear" lists of the time; sadly, as its relevance has faded, the import price on this disc has risen significantly, and the word "indispensible" can't be used so loosely. It's great, but there's an awful lot of prog-metal out there. It's a forgotten gem that, sadly, is priced to stay forgotten."

A PURE JEWEL

Arnaud Villeroy | Nice | 04/24/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Superior is a band I discovered through this CD, their first... I have been listening to it again and again, and I never got bored since it was released. It is a combination of high technic and deep feelings (the 1st smartly and professionnally used to produce the 2nd)... a various stream of piano, guitars, bass and a lot of others instruments, as well as "a capella" singing (Michael Tangermann's voice, opposite to all prog bands, is a.. "male" voice, not too high, not too low... a unique baryton voice which a lot of singers would like to have, and which is really an instrument itself !!!) are all scientifically distilled to result in one thing : a 10 songs CD packed with pure beauty... no song is useless, no song has been put there for fillin' up the place, but on the contrary, Superior, who's a very torough and hard-working band (1 year and a half just to write the lyrics & music of their last opus), took personally in charge all the writting, producing, mixing, etc, because they believe in what they do, they always take their time to do their very best, and this is their 1st effort, which should have been just a poor demo !!! It is in fact a complete 58 mn album full of musical colours and facets, inspirations, goog sound quality and... it is NOT just another progressive soup... this is really an outsider in this domain, as Vanden Plas is for example... As a confirmation of their huge talent, they just proved again, with "Ultima Ratio", their latest release, that they are walking right onto the paces of Queensryche, now dead to my eyes because of Chris De Garmo's departure... My advice : buy this CD at ANY price, wilst it is still available... it is a MUST for progressive metal fans, and it brings tears to me anytime I listen to songs like "Total Void", "Until the End", "Hades", "Dreamtime", "Escape from reality"... "911" is a square-rythm-packed song... plus : all SUPERIOR CDs are intelligent, dealing with contemporary topics, most of the time melancholic and dark but true lyrics, and with the music, you really have this impression of deep feelings... well, this is just a UNAVOIDABLE album... buy it ! (and also YOUNIQUE and ULTIMA RATIO)."