Sylvan - Artificial Paradise

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Sylvan - Artificial Paradise

Artist:	Sylvan
Title:	Artificial Paradise
Label:	Independent
Length(s):	69 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2002
Month of review:	[06/2003]

Line up

Marco Gluehmann - vocals
Matthias Harder - drums, percussion
Sebastian Harnack - bass
Kay Soehl - guitars
Volker Soehl - keyboards

Tracks

1)	Deep Inside	9.14
2)	That's Why It Hurts	7.04
3)	Strange Emotion	4.17
4)	Human Apologies	8.29
5)	Timeless Traces	8.10
6)	I Still Believe	3.03 MP3 or RealAudio
7)	Around The World	6.23
8)	Souvenirs	2.08
9)	Artificial Paradise	20.16

Summary

Artificial Paradise is the third album by German band Sylvan, and the first to be released by themselves.

The music

Opener Deep Inside starts off a bit undecisively. After this start it suddenly picks up with the strong chorus, pushed forward by the vocal part. Gluehmann's slightly rocky voice fits the music very well, as do the perfectly supporting keys and guitars. Good opener.

That's Why It Hurts as its predecessor opens just a tad too gentle to draw the attention, but opens up with the chorus. The strummy guitars and vocals of the verses are nice, but miss the spark of aforementioned chorus. The break leads into a synth/guitar duel which is pretty nice as well.

Strange Emotion is a bit more rocky and light. Not good, not bad, While Human Apologies is much stronger, opening with pretty heavy guitars. This track makes use of prog metal vocabulary, without taking on the heavy sound usually found there. This makes it into a somewhat strange melting pot, that's not unpleasant.

Timeless Traces has the same structure as the two openers. Unobtrusive verses, but a strong chorus, and a nice, lengthy break.

I Still Believe is a pretty good rocky track. Around The World is pretty poppy, not very strong, although the bridge is nice.

Souvenirs is a tormented ballad. Nice one.

As you would expect from its length closer and title track Artificial Paradise has more of an epic feel. The elements remain the same (including the somewhat slow start), but more time is taken for build up. Aside from that, we find more intermezzo-like moments. The middle section has a near rap, which combined with the synths and riffy guitars remind me of Faith No More (although not as intense).

Conclusion

Stylistically this album reminded me of RPWL's effort Trying To Kiss The Sun, except that this album does better at finding a balance between weak and strong moments. This album is pretty accessible progressive, however, it does contain quite a number of very convincing melodies. Beside that, the material is played well, and the arrangements sound well worked through, in general, although they are still slightly off hitting the right tone at times. I find that too often the band take too much time to make their point in a song. Still, this is a pretty good album, showing clear room for improvement.