M.Z. - Under The Silver Cross (2003)Self-released

It is believed that each of bands' third album is a kind of test for them. It means that a band confirms its artisitc and market value or not. When I looked at M.Z.'s line-up, I found out that no changes were undergone. It isn't a secret that I expected some musical changes and their sound's improvement with M.Z.'s next stuff.

And what do we receive? Undoubtedly, Frenchmen serve us their fastest and best produced release until the year 2003. Another considerable fact is that Zan Dang's and Julien Adamo's guitar styles have been matched with themselves. Both instrumentalists had to put a lot of effort into hamming it up to efficiently cooperate during rehearsals and at the studio. Please, don't be surprised when you can get caught in the keys-guitar or guitar-guitar crossfire, since here are some of them next to an impressive Marcus' bass parts in addition. Moreover, classical excerpts are included in original compositions, even though they are still searching for their unique style. Every finest element is polished, and each of tracks are well-arranged and well-performed. It is necessary to point out that, thanks to Raphael Gherissi, orchestrations are definitely better in comparison to those on two previous CDs.

French instrumentalists, with their third album, treated us to neoclassical power metal with shredding chops. When I write "power metal" in this case, I think of contemporary power metal, not US power metal from the eighties. If you like Heavenly's music, you can easily imagine yourself their repertoire without vocal lines in order to get something like M.Z. comnbo, haha. Their instrumental matureness was proved by intelligent composing and its professional execution, that's why I can honestly grant that "Under The Silver Cross" is unquestionably better than M.Z.'s two previous albums put together! Respectable development.