Persona Non Grata-Shade in the light

Sensory
2009



Persona Non Grata hail from Greece and formed back in 2003. Once they solidified their line-up they began concentrating on writing and recording. They play a traditional brand of progressive metal. Once the keyboards and soaring vocals emerged I was quickly reminded of "Awake" era Dream Theater. Although vocalist Bill Axiotis sounds like a cross between Queensryche's Geoff Tate and Fates Warning's Ray Alder. He surges forward with a voices that high yet powerful plus really helps to control the pace. What appeals to me most about this band is that they rely more on building solid structures instead of trying pour out and endless array of flashy bits and pieces. I am sure they have the talent to put on more of a show, but they use restraint and focus on maintaining a powerful foundation. I think their allows them to really a degree of depth to their music and pull a lot out of all that they are doing. If I have a complaint about this band it's that the songs that make up almost the whole first half of the album all start in about the same manner. They all begin rather slow and reserved and I was hoping and expecting them to open up and change the pace a bit. By the second half of the disc they seemed to wake up and be more daring. So maybe it's just a matter of song placement more than style. I certainly can't say that Personna Non Grata do enough to make me want to hear them all the time, but I do like most of the marterial here and I am sure that fans of Dream Theater will likely eat it up.