Album Review - Sun Caged - Promo 2002

I got this three track promo when I saw Sun Caged play live in Kolding in November last year. After that great concert, it's been lying around and was overlooked by all the other albums I had in queue to review, but now I decided it was time to give it a spin. I am very happy that I did...

Sun Caged is a band from Holland playing some quite amazing music. Very intricate Progressive Metal with many twists and turns in the three tracks on this promo, which also helped them get their record deal. In some of the instrumental parts the music has a great, almost wacky feel at times, mainly due to the many changes in pace. I really dig it. These guys master their instruments with great skill. The band consists of Marcel Coenen (Guitar, previously of Lemur Voice), Dennis Leeflang (Drums, has played with Within Temptation among others), Rob Van Der Loo (Bass), Joost Van Den Broek (Keyboards, toured with Star One in 2002) and André Vuurboom (Vocals)

The first song, Secrets of flight goes through many phases in its 9 minutes. Especially the keys give a great vibe to the song. What can I compare this music to? Well, nothing really... I hear various influences from other bands, but with the finished music, Sun Caged have produced something original, that overall is not quite similar to any other bands I have heard (And that is a lot). It's like taking the best from many different bands and putting it all together to form some kind of fantastic Progressive Metal Mix, and then adding an element of surprise. If they continue developing this style, they will be able to carve a small niche for themselves when their debut album is released.

The start of Sedation is brilliant. Parts of Sedation, like the one starting at 5:45 might as well have been taken from Six degrees of inner turbulence by Dream Theater. Yes, the band is that good! Another small riff pops up during the song that sounds very inspired by Erotomania (DT again). It only pops up a couple of times for a second or so, but see if you can find it... This is a very cool song with a excellent part close to the ending where the instruments run wild.

Killer Banshee is an instrumental, where the band really show how great they play together. The way Marcel handles that guitar is a pleasure to listen to. In fact it's a pleasure to sit down and listen to any one of the instruments being played here, very varied and imaginative. In my mind the most important and also hardest part of making instrumental music is keeping it interesting, and I must say, Sun Caged succeeds on that count.

André, the singer, is able to go from highpitched vocals and back to his 'normal' voice without problems and his singing fits the music very well. Especially when he is singing in a lower pitch in parts of Sedation his voice sounds excellent.

Of course there is always room for improvement, but it's hard to point out specific flaws with this music. The music can be hard to get into the first times you hear it and it feels like the songs are not very coherent, but with time the music opens up more and more.

So, if you like very technical, yet still melodic, music with some vibes and influences from bands like Sieges Even, Spastic Ink, Psychotic Waltz, Fates Warning, Dream Theater and Symphony X then you should keep your eyes on Sun Caged. These bands are some quite fantastic bands to be compared to, but in just three songs Sun Caged show that they are able to compete with the best of them.

Sun Caged is like a fresh blow of Progressive Metal and shows absolutely huge potential. This is just the beginning and I can't wait to hear what this band comes up with next. The band will enter the studio in February to record their debut album.

If you are interested in listening to this music then you should check out The Official Sun Caged web site. There you can download a couple of full songs.

We also did an interview with the band when they played in Kolding. you can read that here

Written by Steen
Friday, January 17, 2003
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Ratings

Steen: 666/10

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