Progressive Metal. It's either a sad attempt to bring back knights, horses and very big blunt swords. Or it's very good engineered, well arranged music. People like or dislike it for different reasons. I don't like keyboards for instance, but it doesn't keep me from liking a lot of progressive metal though...I just hate the eighties. But that's a whole other story! The prgressive metal we are talking about when referring to Xystus is the latter, the well engineerd stuff!

Surreal is divided into two separate parts. The first part consists of some good stuff. It isn't really that recognisable, but it's good anyway.The second part is the part that made the score so high! Song 8 to 14 is a story told through beautiful music. The thing I like most here, is that it's almost a soundtrack to a movie. It would however be a shame to write a movie to it, because it would damage the music. Therefore I suggest you roll up a joint and put this album on, so you can find out what I mean!

Xystus brings us a record which clearly states that there is alot of potential here! I'm looking forward to seeing these guys live someday, just to see if they can pull it off to create the atmosphere that this record sets. Another Dutch band that knows how it's supposed to be done!