Altesia hail from France. Paragon Circus is their debut album from 2019. A friend recommended it to me recently and I’m pleased he did. The band play excellent prog/metal of a high standard indeed.
First rate musicianship, the right mixture of epic, powerful, meandering changes of tempo and pace along with the occasional shorter more direct stuff at around six minutes each.
The guitar work is particularly impressive ranging from the big chords and riffs to the scorching, blistering soloing a-la John Petrucci. The keys to the fore in the right places bigging it all up as do the complex drum and bass patterns. Superb vocals too.
I didn’t find it the easiest listen at first. Altesia being one of those bands you have to take the time to listen through a few times to fully appreciate what’s going on with the music. It’s both intricate and accessible after those first few spins.
The comparisons with Dream Theatre are obvious. And it’s possible to hear bits of Rush/Kansas/Opeth/Enchant type influences – however Altesia have the chops here on Paragon Circus to do their music their own way on their own considerable ability.
To mix it up even further they bring in some effective saxophone and a bit of violin.
The longer songs hold the attention throughout such is the sheer variety of the compositions. For example Reminiscence clocks in at eleven minutes and it flies by. As it does with the ten minutes of The Prison Child. Check it out:
Hex Reverse a slower quite haunting piece with the use of piano and soulful vocals – then it’s the stupendous seventeen minutes of Cassandra’s Prophecy. A remarkable tour de force as it builds from a slowish start in to something quite breathtaking in scope and needs hearing to fully appreciate it – too much to try to describe here in words.
Overall, Altesia have a debut album of immense promise of high class progressive metal. A most highly recommended listen.
Pick up the CD (or download) from their Bandcamp page:
https://altesia.bandcamp.com/album/paragon-circus