SEBASTIEN has quite a pedigree having been nurtured along from their beginnings by Roland Grapow, the man famous for being a long time member of HELLOWEEN. You also have guest appearances by the already mentioned cast of greats. After reading that impressive list it's quite clear to me that Roland has some pull in the industry and it also doesn't hurt to have such a talented band to represent to all the guests you ask to come along with. Fabio Lione is without doubt my favorite of the guest members. No vocalist is seemingly as under-appreciated in the realm of metal as he is. Whenever I see one of those dumb lists of the top 100 Metal vocalists of all time and it doesn't include him or Eric Adams, I just roll my eyes and move on.

The song "Dorian" starts out with a Phantom Of The Opera vibe.A lot of people have been using that theme in Metal as of late. SEBASTIEN is called "Hard Rock" in their bio sheet. I think it's more progressive Metal than it is Hard Rock. It has all it needs to be classified as that, such as the tempo changes the complexity, the keyboards and the heaviness.

You have some nice playing here. Of course you can't judge the vocals as a whole because they are sang by various people. There is a bit of electronic here and there in the form of some funky electric synthesizer moments. I am sure it was done to add layers and individuality to the proceedings.I don't feel it's necessary to purposefully try to separate yourself from everyone else, because then you sound like you're trying too hard. In that regard, thankfully the electronic elements are used sparingly.One would expect the background vocals to be positively spectacular. That is not the case in the song "Tears Of the White Roses".Actually, they are quite cringing worthy. I was hoping they would choose a better song as the title track. We have some thunderous drumming in many of the songs, which is why I was more willing to accept this as a progressive Metal album rather than hard rock. When I think of Hard Rock I think of bands like THIN LIZZY, BOSTON, URIAH HEEP and WHITESNAKE. Also, the compositions are of a fairly high caliber.

Overall, there is quite a lot to like about SEBASTIEN. You certainly shouldn't feel ripped off if you buy this album. It has a lot of strong material. Reviewing albums for months has taught me when to spot true effort as opposed to simple coasting along or painting by the numbers. This project is for real and with the support of Roland Grapow, I think they will be hanging around for at least another album or two. It certainly shouldn't end here. This is good enough to recommend, but only after you know what true genre it belongs in, probably Progressive metal as stated previously.