A melodic music lover’s dream come true, the sophomore album “ReEvolution” from prog metal outfit Cynthesis definitely focuses more on the “prog” than the “metal” this time around. While still working in some tight and technical guitar work for metal fans, the heaviness is toned down for much of the album’s run time to instead focus on strong, organic clean singing and complex atmospheres created through the instrumentation.

The progressive elements here don’t lead to anything particularly zany or avant-garde, rather concentrating on interweaving melodies. It shouldn’t be surprising that there are clear echoes of Abnormal Thought Patterns, considering Cynthesis features two members from that band, but if the non-stop technicality of ATP came off as soulless to you, this will be much more appealing. There is unquestionably technical guitar and bass acrobatics, but they are more confined, so there’s much more room for emotional expression.

While incredibly solid and compelling on the musical front, the album does drag down due to long track lengths on the second half and a large amount of overall down time. The overly atmospheric “The Noble Lie,” the nine-minute “Persistence of Visions,” and the 13-minute “Release The Deity” lack the heavy stuff necessary to fully keep the attention over multiple listens.

Vocalist Erik Rosvold really brings the goods on this album, and the strength of the vocals adds appeal for fans of clean singing-focused epic power metal acts. On the other end, the overall sound of the music will definitely be of interest to fans of prog bands like Suspyre and Dream Theater, and it’s even possible to pick out some interesting Pink Floyd influences from time to time.