I thought a prog-scene in Lebanon did not exist few years ago when there were only Dream Theater fans and cover bands of.. you guessed it Dream Theater. People who liked the DT music loved the complexity and technique and for them DT was the only prog band around… and DT was the trend. A less trendy and slightly less known band at the time was Opeth with lesser fans in Lebanon until Opeth “Roadrunnered itself” and reached the masses. Both bands have produced amazing musical work, but in my opinion they were only noticed in the local scene when they became more of the “hip” band.

We are always late to recognize good/great music and I will not stand still and wait till someone from Europe recognizes Schizanimus and Amadeus Awad’s work.

Before I talk about the tracks, here are the people who took part in this magnificent work:

Amadeus Awad – Guitars, Programming & Keyboards
Elia I. Monsef – Vocals
Gavin Harrison – Drums
Dan Veall – Bass
Danny Bou-Maroun – Orchestration & Additional Keyboards

Recorded at Broken Records Production Studios (Except drums and bass), mixed by Karim B. Sinno & Mastered by Simon Laham
Artwork by Bernard Bou Kheir.

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The EP opens with “A song for a Loner” with acoustic guitar and background synth setting the mood of what will come next. Elia’s vocals perfectly fit the music and the lyrics are simply perfect. You can easily notice how much effort is put into the music and how high the artists aimed for. Guitar work is just perfect and the drums fills along like magic.

Second track on the EP, “Noir” is simply Noir, a blend of dark and calm moods. Bass guitar shines mostly in this track right at where it should and plays a perfect part in moving the rhythm forward and filling with the guitar and all that “right” synth effect.

Final track is “Poetry of time” – believe me it is hard to describe the music, it is rich, dense, complex but ingeniously arranged and mixed with perfection. The track has some sort of an oriental feel, a Progressive Metal aggression and Symphonic style. It’s a track with Grandeur.

Just in case you forgot, it’s Gavin Harrison on drums!

Find the lyrics on: http://schizanimus.wordpress.com

Amadeus on Facebook: https://facebook.com/amadeus.awad.official