UMUR
"The Lotus Effect" is the third full-length studio album by Dutch progressive metal act Sun Caged. The album was released through Lion Music in June 2011. It´s the successor to "Artemisia" from March 2007. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as bassist Roel Vink left during the recording of the album and has been replaced by Daniel Kohn. Vink actually recorded almost all bass on the album before he left, and Kohn only performs on "Parasol".
Stylistically Sun Caged continues the "classic" progressive metal style they also played on the two preceding album releases (and in their pre-Sun Caged act Lemur Voice). This is not a band shaking on their hands in terms of songwriting and the direction of their music. While the fast-paced almost death metal like drumming and riffing which occur a couple of times during the opening track "Seamripper & the Blanket Statement", may confuse a few listener´s and have them believe that Sun Caged have turned brutal, nothing could be further from the truth. This is as mentioned still "classic" progressive metal with Dream Theater and Enchant standing out as the greatest influences on Sun Caged music. Sun Caged can be nicely heavy when they set their minds to it, but there are just as many mellow, epic, and melodic sections on the album.
Compared to "Artemisia", it´s great to hear that Sun Caged are back on track with "The Lotus Effect". "Artemisia" was overall not a bad quality recording, but it did feature a sub par production job, which made it a bit hard to listen to. That is fortunately not the case with "The Lotus Effect" which features a massive, heavy, powerful, and detailed sound production, which perfectly suits the material.
The musicianship is on a high level on all posts and Sun Caged are arguably an incredibly well playing act. Lead vocalist Paul Adrian Villarreal has a strong voice and hits the high notes with ease as well as performing more "regular" register vocals with passion and conviction too. The instrumental performances are also strong. Massive and heavy guitar riffs and rhythms, time-signature changes and blistering lead guitar and keyboard runs, are just some of the ingredients of the band´s sound.
"The Lotus Effect" contains seven individual tracks and the longer epic "Ashtamangala the 8 Auspicious Symbols", which is subdivided into seven tracks. At 71:59 it´s a pretty long album, but Sun Caged have managed to write a powerful and engaging release, which means the long playing time is justified. To my ears "The Lotus Effect" is (at least up until then) Sun Caged´s strongest and most varied album, and they deserve some recognition for this release. The thought crossed my mind that the sub par quality of "Artemisia" was a sign that Sun Caged had lowered their ambitions, but thankfully my ponderings and doubts are proven wrong here. "The Lotus Effect" is through and through a high quality progressive metal album and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.