Progressive Rock and Metal bands are hard to swallow by some Metal fans. It happens due the technical approach used, the long instrumental parts or even the lack of musical aggressiveness used by some bands. But the genre has its values, and has revealed great albums throughout the years. The Dutch band HILLSPHERE comes to show what they got on "Florescence", their latest album. It's a very good Progressive Metal album, having as reminiscent elements from Prog Rock the long instrumental parts, using an accurate instrumental technique and very good keyboards orchestrations (to create the right ethereal and tender atmospheric feeling for some moments). These guys show a good work on this album, but need to improve their musical efforts.

The sound quality is in a good level. All sounds clean and heavy in very good proportions, but some instrumental tunes are rawer beyond the right point. It is heavy and shows good musical inspiration, but a cleaner sound quality could fit better on what they play. It's not bad, but it's not what their music needs. The very good instrumental work shown on "The Breeding of Us" (a more simple approach is used here, with fine guitars), the clear touch of GENESIS heard on "Our Physical Way of Speaking" (besides the heavy weight used will take you to the 80s, especially on FATES WARNING in some moments) and the giants ones "Ghost of You", "Mind at Rest" and "Clairvoyance" can be named as their best moments, and they need to be heard more than one time to be fully understood.

They are pretty good, have a good musical potential, but need to improve some more. For the next time, a better sound quality (with more clearer and defined instrumental tunes) can be a great a help to them. For now, "Florescence" is a good album.