A friend of mine turned me on to Urizen and am I glad he did. I haven't enjoyed a cd this much in years. I am generally  a heavy metal purist, and with this cd I get all that I can ask for. But it is the rest of the cd that really blew my mind and had me excited. What a great story line and awesome graphics. It just all fits even if it switches from one genre to another. Count me in!!
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Amazing CD, I really don't understand why these guys aren't rich and a household name by now. You can definatly hear their musical talent and they have so much of it that around the end of it (track 10 to be spacific) they just laugh have a good time and play WITH music like a toy and its still a kickass song. It's a kickass cd, everyone that listens to it with me is just floored by this cd just as much as i am.
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autocratopolis is an extraordinary blend of guttural emotion meticulously laid down to please even the most discriminating ear.  There is no way to label the genious of this album for the ages.  You'll just have to check it out and feel the story behind the music for yourself.
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My first exposure to Urizen was at the last Ridglea Metal Fest. I found them to be a rather curious entity and didn't quite know what to make of them at the time. Having just come downstairs from seeing one of the bands on stage 3 I found this band ripping through their set with a fury, they had just launched into "Neon or 3 Steps to Happiness"
The spoken word intro on this song had me scratching my head for a bit.
During that night I received the free demo that they were passing out and decided to give it a spin or 2 to really check out what was going on. Well, after playing that demo several THOUSAND times I found a band that I could truly appreciate.


Having become a fan of this band through that demo I took it upon myself to purchase AUTOCRATOPOLIS (their full length effort) What I found on that disc pretty much floored me, exceeded my expectations and shattered any preconceivd notions about what the band is about. This disc has a VERY wide range of styles prominently leaning to but not relying on an extreme metal vibe. Oddly enough there really isn't any extreme metal style vocals, the vocals are more in the vein of power or progressive metal and are done very well. Vocal duties are divided between Thomas (guitar and bass on the disc) and Daniel Drinnen (keyboards) and are handled very capably by both. Metal is not the only influence on this disc, there's extreme metal, power metal, progressive, acoustic and other influences I can't quite put my finger on (there even seems to be a few nods to a show-tune type vibe) AUTOCRATOPOLIS as far as I can tell is a concept (at least the pics in the insert seem to imply some type of story) bottom line, if you like it heavy, but you appreciate great musicianship and ALOT of diversity then you may want to check these guys out and pick up AUTOCRATOPOLIS. On a side note these guys remind me a bit of Faith No More just due to the fact that they can have so many different styles and can still be recognized as Urizen. Also, let us not forget Julio Escamilla who does an absolutely phenomenal job on the drums. The packaging on this disc is completely professional looking and the mixing/mastering on the disc is also done VERY well.

Rating: 10/10 Yes, I think it's THAT good!!!!
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