"The title track "God's Equation" is worth the price of admission alone but every song is just as good as the one before it."

Follow up:

8/10

1. "The Conception" − 2:03
2. "God's Equation" − 7:57
3. "United Alliance" − 5:04
4. "Atomic Firelight" − 5:19 Watch the video!
5. "Hallo Spaceboy" (David Bowie cover) − 5:30
6. "Evolution Exceed" − 6:08
7. "Alien Kamikaze" − 4:37
8. "Painted Skies" − 6:33
9. "Spirit Starcruiser" − 6:02
10. "Farewell" − 2:10
11. "Osiris' Triumphant Return" − 8:45

Well there's an album I've been listening to for the past 2 weeks non-stop called "God's Equation" by Pagan's Mind. I love Progressive and Power metal bands. Pagan's Mind is both. They blend elements of both styles in a way that's legitimately heavy, powerful and at the same time, catchy and accessible. God's Equation is the fourth studio release to come from the Norwegian quintet and is highly recommended for fans of the band and/or the genre. To put it simply, Pagan's Mind are ahead of the pack.

If you're an observant person, you'll recognize the parallels between the name of the band and the lyrical content of their songs. This stuff is paganistic, mostly concerning alternative ways of thinking about the universe, the way it works and how it came to be. It's really quite interesting. If you generally are a pretty uptight person concerning religion and the like, you might get turned off by it. I've learned to take this kind of stuff for what it is though: entertainment. These guys don't have some personal mission to convert me to paganism. They want to entertain me through music. And that's exactly what they do and they do it VERY well.

Like I said before, this is their fourth album and as such, I had certain expectations as to how it should sound. Yet, it seems these guys knew their fans were expecting apples so they gave us pears (kinda like you were expecting me to say oranges...hehe). Previous efforts from the PM crew have been rife with incredibly infectious hooks, melodies, harmonies and amazing chord progressions with just the right amount of chuck to still call it metal. This time around however, there's no mistaking that the album is metal. It's considerably heavier than anything they've released before it. Atomic firelight could be their heaviest song yet. But every single track has that Pagan's Mind magic which conjures images of dreams and space and can instantaneously bring my mood up from the depths to near euphoria. Only difference is, it's heavier this time.

Had I not had any expectations going in, it would be even more enjoyable on first listen and for those of you who haven't heard them but are now interested, listen to this one first and move backwards, it gets catchier the further you move into their back catalog. But the more spins this album gets, the more those previous expectations fade away and the more I appreciate the album for what it is. Actually, in places it reminds me of another Progressive band on the heavy side by the name of Mercenary. For those of you familiar with the scene, that's a compliment.

I'll leave you guys with this:

The title track "God's Equation" is worth the price of admission alone but every song is just as good as the one before it.

Links

Pagan's Mind on Myspace
Pagan's Mind's official website
Buy the album

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