Gagas - All This World (2006)

Gagas hail from Slovakia and play a blend of rock, fusion, and metal. The closest comparison for me is an obscure Italian band called Ledel, who released a few demos and an EP in the late 90's. Encyclopedia Metallum says their style "is reminiscent of Gordian Knot", but this is really stretching it, in my opinion. Hematovore might be a better comparison point, but Gagas are much lighter and jazz-influenced. Their style really fuses jazz/fusion, rock, metal, and classical (they quote Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, for example), with a few other influences like techno thrown in at times. It's hard to classify as "metal", but then again it's not really rock or fusion either. The playing is unfortunately a little sloppy, especially the guitarist's pull-off technique. It would help them a lot if he could get that smooth and even. As it is, he's trying to play above his ability level and it shows. Ultimately, I enjoyed this, partly because I didn't know what was coming next. The band did a good job of mixing in a lot of different influences, but still keeping each song unique and relatively focused. Highlights for me included "The Oceans" (very much like Ledel), "Zooloo", and "The World of Kids" (the heavier tracks).

All of the songs are available free from the band's website.