Audio Tracks: Together As One, Man Along The Line, Sanity (Live), Beyond Believe (Live), Lonely At The World (Live)
Video Clips: Sanity (Live), Beyond Believe (Live), Lonely At The World (Live), Systems Of Mercy (Live), Together As One (Live)
More Info: www.sanity.nl
Verdict (& Rating): Solid Power Metal (70 %)
Sanity are a Dutch progressive metal band that combine elements of Queensryche and Dream Theater, with Queensryche style techo/power metal being to the fore. The band was formed by ex-members of the band Blind Fury and ex-Bagheera singer Kees van Keulen.
Before actually talking about the music, Sanity's "The Demo" package impresses for being innovative. The package consists of 2 discs - an audio disc and a video disc. Not only do you get the hear what the guys sound like, you get the see them in action on stage.
Opening track "Together As One" is power metal with the keyboards adding a few prog touches. At 8 mins long it certainly is of prog duration. Equally long is "Man Along The Line" which displays the bands more sensitive side in a Metallica meets Rainbow ballad . Vocalist, Kees van Keulen, puts a great deal of feeling and emotion into his voice on this and the other tracks on the album. At times it seems like the emotion has taken predecence over melody.
On the first two live tracks, "Sanity" and "Beyond Believe", the band adopt a more classical metal approach. "Lonely At The World" starts of in a slow rambling manner and as it develops reminds me of either Magnum or Demon.
The live tracks give a feel for what the band are about and prove that the band can deliver in a live sitiuation, but because the quality is of the 'OK' variety, so I'm not going to draw too many conclusions from them. The studio tracks are best ones to investigate the potential of the band.
That little bit of Dream Theater in their sound, means that I automatically compare Sanity to DT and they set a very high standard indeed. So perhaps my verdict as 'solid' is a touch on the harsh side. For fans of Techno/Power metal (Queensryche, Crimson Glory etc), they area band to keep an eye on, as the two studio tracks show promise.
