Book Of Reflections - Chapter II: Unfold The Future

Published Nov. 11 2006

*=Staff's pick	Unfold The Future* Bringer Of The Torch Free My Soul Heal Me Uncover The Lie Ashes To Ashes Make Sure You Don't Fall Deep Inside Blink Of An Eye Got To Get Low Love Conquers All

Genre	Progressive Metal	Jansson/LeMar/Mattsson	Vocals
Tracks	11	Lars Eric Mattsson	Guitar
Runningtime	55 Min.	Anand Mahangoe	Guitar
Label	Lion Music	Lars Eric Mattsson	Bass
Release	24 Nov. 2006	Eddie Sledgehammer	Drums
Country	Sweden	L-E Mattsson/Mistheria	Keyboards
Similar artists	Tears Of Anger, Dream Theater, Sphere Of Souls

Book Of Reflections is the brainchild of Lars Eric Mattsson who also is the founder of the record label Lion Music. During the years he has been quite busy releasing several solo albums but he has also recorded with bands like Vision and Condition Red. Book Of Reflections is his latest "band" but this must be considered as a solo project with specially hand picked instrumentalists to help Mattsson out.

Chapter II: Unfold The Future is quite obviously the second album from Book Of Reflections but since I haven't heard the debut this is a fresh start for me. The first thing that came to mind when listening to the album was the poor production. The bass dominates the sound picture far too much and the overall sound is muddy and without edge, I really wonder what was going on in the mixing process of the album. Even if we look beyond this fatal defect I can't find anything intriguing at all, standard progressive metal without memorable hooks or interesting arrangements. The vocals delivered by Benny Jansson (Tears Of Anger), Martin LeMar (Tomorrow's Eve) and Mattsson himself doesn't impress at all either. Quite strange when it comes to Benny Jansson since I really like what he is doing in Tears Of Anger but maybe he felt uninspired due to the poor song writing.

Apart from the decent opener Unfold The Future this is boring to say the least and some of the songs sounds unstructured and unfinished. I always listen at least five times to an album I'm about to review but this time I really had to fight my hardest to fulfil my task. I wouldn't recommend this release to anyone apart from the collectors of Lars Eric Mattsson's work.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
3	4	3,5

Summary
3,5 chalices of 10 - Hawk