Syndromeda The Legacy of God (Download CDR) 8 tracks / 73.40 mins Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb (Excerpt from track(s) 'Ancient Prayers') Please go to the Store to buy this item.

I have been looking forward to the release of this CD since Danny Budts (the man behind Syndromeda) sent me a cassette of it a few months ago. Syndromeda’s first album was good, the second was excellent and this again is another significant progression.

Martin Luther King, I think it is, introduces the CD with the words “I just want to do Gods will”. We then move straight into ‘Earth Child’ which is quite simply the best upbeat rhythms / sequences / scorching lead lines track from any album I picked up at e-live in Holland (and there were over thirty of them). Sure it is in yer face, crank the volume up all the way, rip roaring stuff but what is so amazing is the quality of the melody.

Next, ‘The Future’. Calmness descends, a haunting tune follows but it is not long before a rumbling sequence starts and another blistering lead line makes an appearance but then just as suddenly disappears and an excellent vocal sample replaces it before a flutey melody, at just the right volume, shines amongst the pulsations. Another melody that could have been taken straight from a mid to late 70s TD album makes a devastating impact, the main sequence mutates and another is introduced. Things shift and slide all the way in a fifteen minute piece that came over as being much shorter.

‘Dualities’ uses big sounding synth pads over which, you guessed it, comes another absolutely superb, heart rending melody. It is the melodies that make this album stand out from the rest, they keep coming one after another, never faltering in their brilliance. The production too is fantastic, every element of each track being able to be heard and have just the right impact, an amazing step forward. Half way through ‘Dualities’ this beautiful laid back track is suddenly blasted asunder by a right ballsy sequence, laser effects and thunderous rhythms. In other words we are getting the two sides of Danny in one track. ‘The Man of God’ is a very atmospheric number but with deep sonic booms punctuating the calm. It is as if shockwaves from an exploding star are buffeting a defenceless planet. Unintelligible vocoded vocals, low in the mix give us some sort of warning and we move into ‘Missa Gaia Electronica’. More deep rumblings are disturbed by strange satanic chants, they depart and leave us with cosmic shimmers and the subtle vocoded vocals return, everything still calm and relaxed but then a cracking sequence breaks through at about the five minute mark and a killer laser beam of a lead line blasts through leaving a destructive rhythm in its wake. Full body armour needed.