Most of the times it is difficult to know anything about a band whose base is from another continent. OK, we all know the so called "big bands", some others from some countries with history in the Metal scene and a few that made a breakthrough to the Metal establishment.

So I'm sorry, but I didn't have a clue about SIX MAGICS from Santiago, Chile. The band is not new. They were formed back in 1996 and since then, they've released three full length albums and a DVD with songs from their two first albums. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else about their past.

But that's good for you, since you're not going to start yawing with what I write. From the moment that "Behind The Sorrow" fell in my hands and in my CD player, I thought that we are dealing with an interesting band. Not innovative but good. I know that most of you are willing to bet that we are dealing with a gothic Metal band. Well if you did, you just lost your money. SIX MAGICS are wandering in the Power Metal fields, with some progressive elements here and there. Of course they have some NIGHTWISH-like construction in some of their compositions, but, fortunately for my ears, it is not present in the whole album. Ely's voice is melodic, yet it sounds earthly. The rest of the band surely knows how to play their instruments and put together their ideas and filter all of their influences (not that they can't do it better). You will also notice some early DREAM THEATER parts, from the "Images and Words" era, something logical since they had David Prater, DREAM THEATER's producer, as their engineer. I know that this doesn't mean anything by itself, but the band did a good job overall.

"Behind The Sorrow" is an album that female-fronted Metal fans will surely appreciate and I believe symphonic Metal fans will do, too. Nice ideas and a good package make this album a good choice among all the crap that we are served. If I had to pick some songs from the album, those would be "Run", "Animal" and "Hands Of Time".