Tellus Requiem comes from Norway, and with this ‘Invictus’, have released their second album so far. Their music is best described as progressive metal, with a prominent role for keyboards. That does not imply however that the other musicians are no good, far from it. Their music bristles with unexpected tempo changes, as well as stylistically changes, going from melodic to quite heavy, and even neo-classical.
As a matter of fact their music is quite heavy, the closest resemblance that comes to my mind being Symphony X. Not all of the songs have the same quality, but over all this is a very good album. What makes them a bit different is the fact that in certain songs there is what you could call a choir of some sort in the background. If this might have something to do with the fact that they state Richard Wagner as one of their influences I don’t know.
While art first I found Ben Rodgers vocals were not totally suited for this kind of music, I changed my mind after a few spins, but it’s a fact he excels in the more melodic parts of the songs.
A very promising second album by this fairly young band.