lukretion Swan Christy are one of prog metal’s best kept secrets. The Greek band never managed to accumulate any real success in the 1990s/2000s when they were most active in the metal scene. This is a true pity because they released three great metal albums in those years (1998’s One with the Swan, 1999’s Today Died Yesterday and 2001’s Black Is the White Color), before turning to experimental/jazz music and eventually changing name to signal their distancing from their early metal days. One remarkable thing about these three albums is how diverse and different from one another they are. The debut album that I review here in detail is a magical combination between opera, classical music, prog metal and gothic metal. The sophomore album is more squarely rooted in prog/power metal, while Black Is the White Color is a strange hotchpotch of electro-goth, alternative metal and prog. That’s covering quite a lot of ground!

The debut LP, One with the Swan, is a concept album telling a story that sounds a lot like a revised version of Faust, re-imagined in a Game of Thrones setting. Musically, the 13 songs of the album are written in the style of prog/power metal, but with added classical instrumentation and operatic vocals (provided by guest soprano singer Natalie Rassoulis, who also sang with SepticFlesh). In line with the concept nature of the album, the music is very theatrical and the album does feel a lot like a small-scale metal opera. The violin and the piano are very prominent instruments, often providing the foundations of the songs. The guitars act as counterpoint, with a raw, low-toned sound that creates a nice contrast with the delicate classical instrumentation. Meanwhile, Kostas Makris’ vocals add yet another layer to Swan Christy’s music. His voice is dark, low and dramatic, and gives a gothic vibe to the songs, reminding me at times of Moonspell, which is why Swan Christy are sometimes classified as a symphonic gothic metal band. Personally, I think the label is somewhat misleading because it is often used to refer to the “beauty and the beast” style that was in vogue in those years. Swan Christy’s music could not be further removed from that trend, though, and sits much more firmly in progressive metal ground.

The album is comprised of 13 songs, but most songs are very short, rarely exceeding the 3 minutes, and the whole record clocks in at only 45 minutes. The songs act as small vignettes, each telling a piece of the concept story. The album may feel slightly fragmented at first, but this does not detract from the listening experience, especially if one listens to it with the spirit of sitting through a rock/metal musical.

The music is fairly original. There are some references to other contemporaneous prog/power metal giants like Savatage and Rough Silk, but these are not overly transparent. The playing is first-class, all musicians are really proficient and this is definitely one of the positive aspects of the album. Kostas’ vocals are perhaps slightly tentative on this release. He will improve on later albums, but here his voice does not come across as completely polished and in control. The most negative aspect of the album, however, is the sound production, which is rather primitive. It is quite obvious that this album was recorded on a low budget: the guitar sound is very raw and unpolished, the instruments are not always well balanced in the mix (the voice is at times barely audible), and the overall sound is muddy and muffled. The ambition, scope and quality of the music on this album would have deserved a much better sound production.

Nevertheless, One with the Swan is an excellent record that should definitely appeal to fans of progressive rock/metal. There are a lot of ideas on this record that push the album at the boundaries of the prog metal that was being played in the mid 1990s. As such, the record has a fairly unique and original feel that elevates it above much of the competition. Of course, being this a debut, there are still many rough edges, not least in the way the music is recorded and produced. But One with the Swan is a minor prog metal gem and I promise you won’t regret giving it a spin.