What is expected from an album is that it can fill some part of the listeners' lives with joy. No one is looking for something that wasn't heard before or something like that (maybe just us, the writers, have patience enough to judge such aspect), but a form of music that really can satisfy the deeper needs of the listeners. In this aspect, for sure the new album from FICTION SYXX will be a instant success for many fans. Yes, because "The Alternate Me" is really tasteful.

Being a brainchild of Mark Allen Lanoue, who brought with him many musicians who played on known bands as KING KOBRA, XYZ, MONTROSE and musicians as Joel Lynn Turner and Graham Bonnet. So the music of the band is near of AOR/Melodic Rock with some Prog Metal influences of a DREAM THEATER on the band's early days. So be prepared to be assaulted by some catchy songs with some good technical level and charming melodies. "The Alternate Man" was produced, mixed and mastered by the hands of the bassist JK Northrup at Alien Productions Music Studio, and he built a very good sound quality. It sounds clean and loud, but with the necessary doses of musical weight. And the instrumental tunes chosen by the band are of that kind that earlier AOR albums used on the past, when it was a bit heavier.

This album has a feeling that make listeners' minds travel back in time, to the 80's. And the best moments are presents on "My Darkest Hour" (a song with charming chorus and good shreds on lead guitars), the charming ambiance created by keyboards on "Monster in the Mist", the climatic harmonies of "The Alternate Me" and of "Wind Reminds Me", the melodic strength of "Foolish Pride", and the Prog Metal feeling of the fills "Tragic Magic". But the entire album is truly very good.

Hear "The Alternative Me" and enjoy!