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Reviewed by Jeff
 /  Rating: 9

Felony is THE “melodic” sensation of the end of the year for me. When a ton of bands choose everyday to play basic boring Power Metal, our band from Switzerland chose to play real Melodic Heavy with Neo Classical touches something between Angra, Edguy and Adagio actually. I have the luck to listen to a lot of Demo and Auto-Produced albums everyday but releases of such quality, in more than three years of work on Metal Storm, I got maybe three CD like this one.

The first detail that was really impressive for me is the quality of the compositions played by some amazing musicians. Believe me my friends, we’re probably in front of one of the best singer of Heavy Metal. I don’t like to do comparisons but if you (evidently) know the voice of André Matos you must know that the one of Andreas Wildi is really similar and as good as the one of André. Also the others guys of the band don’t suffer of any comparisons with others confirmed musicians and they’re good really. Also, it’s important to say that we don’t have only one singer on “First Works”. Actually a lot of the songs are duets between Andreas and Andrea Richner a session vocalist with an amazing angelical voice. Don’t expect any new Symphonic stuff here, she just has a really beautiful voice and it fits perfectly with the music of Felony.

When it comes to the music, we have a really great Melodic Heavy Metal and as I said in the introduction we’re between Angra, Edguy and Adagio. Adagio in reason of the neo classical spirit of the album with some progressive touches (the Keyboards helps a lot here), Angra in reason of the impressive catchy melodies and Eguy in reason of the power of those songs. However this is not a clone, the music of Felony never copies those bands but I can hear that they've probably influenced them. It’s not so hard to understand at the end that we have a good bunch of potential hits on this album (like "What A Felony", "Say Goodbye" or "Justice"), and when I see which bands are able to find success nowadays I hope that Felony will have this luck too…

The production is also fantastic! If this album is actually an auto-production it was however mixed by the master Sascha Paeth at Gate-Studio in Germany. The result is simple, this album has the sound of a big German production and it’s really hard to find something wrong at the end. Same with the artworks and layout, all that is really professional and impressive for a self-released album. If they don’t catch a deal with a big label, then I don’t understand anything…

“First Works” is one of the sensations of the end of the year 2005 in the category of Melodic Heavy Metal. They’re not signed but they prove to me that they can be easily compared to the best bands of the scene. Also, I say it again but Andreas Wildi is one of the most promising singers that I found lately. With such arguments I hope that you understand that you cannot miss this release, probably one of the best Heavy Metal album of the year. As we say in French, “chapeau bas messieurs”…