Reviewed by Rob on 01 Jul 2010

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After the very succesfull debut album Dante is now releasing their second album through Prog-Rock Records: Saturnine.
This record label has a keen eye on talented bands and therefore my extra attention for these Germans. This album will fit smoothly in your Cd collection right in the middle of Arena and Dream Theater

Dante's music has the powerfull guitars (Marjus Berger) with keyboards (Markus Maichel)instrumental parts like Dream Theater or like the song Never Return has some Fates Warning. The voice of Alexander Gohs is not the powerful-high pitched vocals like James Labrie but more in the range of Arena's, Rob Sowden. Specially on the ballad Maybe one Day. Vocal parts are are never over the top and instrumental parts are heavy and melodic

Said this, I realize I make to much references to other bands. This band is more. Not just a copy-cat look-a-like band. It has a sound of it's own.
So that makes Dante a band to keep your eye on.

Runners-up for Superband-status !!!

Reviewed by Nuno on 07 Jan 2011

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The second album by this German band is, indeed, a giant leap ahead. And I do mean it in a quite wide way, as he band has evolved into a compact and tight act. The way the instruments interact and complement each other, and the way the tracks themselves have been composed shows us a band that must be very solid and with mind-alike ideals. In fact, it is obvious while listening to this album that there is a compromise with the foundations of the progressive rock and with the heavy metal darkness and power.

The music present in Saturnine is quite complex in terms of architecture, mixing the keyboard behavior of the vintage sympho-prog with the guitar and drums prowess and wide array of the technical progressive metal. The tracks portray that in a very progressive way: the tracks are long and fruitful in different stages, melodies, direction and weight; the arrangements are complex and multi-layered; each music visits different states of mind and emotional statuses; there are orchestral tapestries that complement and many times drive the direction of the track...

To sum, Dante has released a truly symphonic progressive album, though adding the heaviness and aggressiveness of the metal circles, to increase impact and wideness of their music. They have the prog metal drive of Prymary, Dream Theater and Evergrey but also the contemporary sympho attitude of Sky Architect, Arena and Anima Mundi (note that this album was released prior to the new releases of these two bands), and the respect for the emotional chameleon expression of the 70's sympho. It's like listening to a hybrid of Sky Architect and Dream Theater.

The music, though presenting a duality of slow melancholic and melodic parts and faster paced, technically rich and more aggressive metal parts, does actually stay more time on the technical metal and melodic metal side of things. The changes in direction, pace and emotional display are constant and well served in instrumental terms.

All in all, this is a good album with a competent and adventurous band that will appeal the fans of progressive metal that like that Dream Theater architectural challenges and the capacity for presenting a wide array of melodies, tones and pacing in each track. Diversity and ability to get those different paces tight in an appealing package is the name of the game here!