This has been a rather daunting task. Here I sit reviewing yet another Progressive Metal album, which makes four in a row. Genre fans should know that these aren’t always the easiest or quickest albums to wrap your head around, so four in a row has been a bit of an undertaking. And you know what? With ATMOSFEAR’s “Inside The Atmosphere”, I may have saved the best for last. Germans just seems to know how to do things right when it comes to nearly any style of Metal, and Progressive Metal is no exception. Spawning two of my favorite bands of the genre, VANDEN PLAS and TOMORROW’S EVE, ATMOSFEAR is another band that can be added to the list of high quality German Metal.

Two things standout from the get go with “Inside The Atmosphere”. First, the band has not forgotten or slanted the listener with the “Metal” part of Progressive Metal. There is plenty of heaviness to go along with lengthy, interestingly structured songs and occasional bouts of instrumental flash. Second, as mentioned the songs are lengthy and usually feature differentiating parts and sections plenty, but they never seem to lose focus and go into all out masturbatory territory. This is certainly a good thing with the shortest song topping the five-minute mark and all of the others ranging from over six-minutes to 12-plus. “Inside The Atmosphere” also sonically sounds great, but anyone at all familiar with any of ProgRock Records’ releases should already expect that.

Worthy of mention is the previously mentioned shortest track, a very uniquely conceived version of the BEATLES classic “Eleanor Rigby”. It’s not that it’s necessarily any better than the original songs here, but ATMOSFEAR have done a wonderful job of retaining the spirit of the original song, while making is mesh quite well within the confounds of the album. Many a times cover songs stick out when placed in the middle of an album, but not on “Inside The Atmosphere”. This song has just about been covered to death, but ATMOSFEAR breathe life into their version that many previous attempts have sorely lacked.

If you’ve heard and enjoyed German Progressive Metal before, “Inside The Atmosphere” will not disappoint. If you haven’t but are curious, this album wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

(Online April 8, 2007)