Nova Art – The 3rd Step

Releasedate: 31-07-2012
By: Sabine van Gameren

Nova Art is a Progressive Metal formation that has been formed in 2000. They released their third album “The 3rd Step”

As a musicjournalist you get many, many albums. Whenever you have one that really surprises you, you simply want to find another reason to listen to it again before writing your judgement, just for your own pleasure. Nova Art’s “The 3rd Step” is one of those albums. It is their third release as title may have hint you already. The band’s second album was already one that I enjoyed a lot but the progrockers showed a lot of progress with this release.

Sophisticated riffs, mellow melodies and catchy lyrics are all over the album. The sound is full, perfectly balanced mix and the songs are built on a smart structure that keeps your interest. Tempo changes, breaks, occasional female vocals are giving you more than you could have wished for. In this way the band gives you a complete picture as you may expect from Arjan Lucassen’s Ayreon even though Nova Art does not have the same sort of themes as a red thread going through. As little oddity in the album you can find the Madonna/Britney Spears cover of “Me Against The Music”. Maybe not the most logical choice in here and not the highlight of it all either, but probably great for an encore on a live show. More entertaining is the cover of Zodiac’s “Pacific”.

“The 3rd Step” is a gorgeous album that makes you want to hear more of this band. Hopefully they will hit the European stages soon, maybe with a band like Leprous, that would be an awesome combination.

Line Up:
Konstantin Ganulich – Bass
Stanislav Koulikov – Drums
Artem Klejmenov – Guitars
Konstantn Sdobnov – Keyboards
Andrey Nova – Vocals

Tracklist: 01.Black Harmony 02. No More Pain (feat. Nookie) 03. You, Only (feat. Nookie) 04. My Beloved Hate (new edition) 05. Me Against the Music (Britney Spears Cover) 06. Pacific (Zodiac Cover)

Links:
Nova Art Official