Mourningstar are a Swedish progressive rock band that was founded in 1997. After a few line-up changes the band finally found today's setting. This is a demo-CD to present the band.

Their musical influences are Accept, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Dream Theater, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Glenn Hughes, Kansas, Marillion, Rush and Yes. Although many of their influences is found in the heavy metal and hardrock genre the music is closer to progressive rock, or the nowadays so widespread progressive metal. They could easily be filed under the same genre as such bands as Dream Theater, Shadow Gallery and Symphony X.

The most impressive musicians in the band are the guitarist Magnus Florin and the keyboard player Alexander Orest. Magnus has got a very fast riff technique that's rather impressive sometimes. He's also responsible for the vocals, and he's quite good at that too. He reminds me of a singer, but I can't figure out which one?

The first song is called "Departure" and it's my favourite track on this CD. It starts off with a very funny keyboard melody and a very fast guitar riff. The instrumental middle section of the song is very much in the Dream Theater vein. The instrumental passage ends up very jazzy and Magnus is brilliant on the guitar solos. A masterpiece!

"Domino Child" comes next and it's my least favourite. On this track the hardrock and heavy metal influences are shown. I know that this track advanced Mourningstar in a band contest, but it isn't exactly my cup of tea. If it weren't for this track I would have given the CD a five star rating. Don't get me wrong, because it isn't a bad song at all. The only thing is that it doesn't live up to the quality of the other two songs.

The third and final track is called "Millennial Winter" and it's the epic track with its 12 minutes. It's recorded live in Berghem Studios and it's showing the bands musical skills. It's nice to hear that the band is able play this quite intriguing song live.

Morningstar are equally good as other Swedish bands in the same genre, such as Hollow, Sanity, Timescape and Treasure Land. The front cover made by Mattias Norén is very nice. All in all this is an impressive debut and if they only stay together, it wouldn't surprise me if they could make it big. Recommended.