I have to be honest here; I chose to review this album because I read on SADYON's MySpace profile that EVERGREY is one of their influences. And since the Swedish band has a very distinct music ID I was more than curious to see/listen what this French band had to offer.

Of course, this is not the way for someone who wants to have an unbiased opinion about an album, since the influences can sometimes raise the expectation way too high for a new band. And with SHADYON's second full album the aforementioned effect almost clouded my criticism. But let us see what "Mind Control" is all about...

The quite atmospheric intro leads the listener to "New Dimension" where the keyboards have an important role. In this one the EVERGREY influences show up but only for a while. The track clearly belongs to the Progressive Metal scene and is proud to have some Hard Rock finishing lines. The high pitched ala James LaBrie vocals justifies the band's progressive references and fortunately for me do not choose the over-worked and over-sophisticated path that I am really bored of. In fact the guitar work stays "in the box" and isn't getting lost into confusing melodies that often give you migraines if you try to follow them. "Last Escape" has a lot of melody to it and overall is almost catchy and that's a grand advantage for my taste. Things sound heavier in the guitar driven "Forgotten Nightmare" that comes with a nice groove getting the keyboards in the background. The French band can do also well in producing easy to remember choruses like the one in the homonymous track that also features nice vocal harmonies. With "Guardian Angels" and the Andre Matos (ex-ANGRA) influenced vocals the album fails to reach a climax and hence is characterized as a good album. I mean there is no track in "Mind Control" that could characterize the entire CD and -why not?- give the band the attention and the publicity in order to make a stand.

The bottom line with "Mind Control" is that SHADYON has the potential to produce well-played progressive Metal that can be detached from the distinct influences in a future release. I know that fans of this genre will like SHADYON and will be eager enough to add this album into their progressive Metal CD collection. As for the rest of us, we can all wait for the band's next step...