Well, I wrote the bio some time ago but the review is still missing. This will change now because here it finally is: Actually it was a fortunate coincidence that 7for4 called my attention. The four guys from Munich (Germany) filled in for "Flying food Circus" at short notice and supported "Karmakanic" in Würzburg. They not only left a mark on me, everyone was enthused and thrilled. I ordered their albums immediately and the same feelings afflict me everytime I listen to the studio versions. But what are the magic ingredients that constitute their music and the latest output "Time"? Well, you can't actually say which genre they belong to. Basically it is a compound of Fusion and Prog Metal, but as I said before, basically. Guitarist and songwriter Wolfgang Zenk mingles the brew with various trimmings such as latin, jazz, blues and even country. The music is, with the exception of one song, all instrumental and reaches from atmospherical to VERY fast and features incredible breaks at impossible spots. It's something I never heard before and it really impresses me. The album commences with "Zeitgeist". A wonderful and melodic tune between Fusion and Liquid Tension Experiment like prog Metal. It partly features the bass as lead instrument. I already told you about the latin flavour, here it is. "TempERAmento" implicates a strong samba feeling in a fusion garment. Great drumming, unbelievable breaks, terrific song, perfect for your next holidays in Brazil ;) "Where are you now" is the only song featuring singing, but the female vocals blend in quite good, it fits the general sound. "7:44 am" which also is 7:44 minutes long (also remember the band name), offers matutinal gloom. It's an atmospherical and medolic tune featuring jazz as well as some prog metal parts, a highlight. The first part of the title song abducts you to a different world. Pink Floyd? Yes, in the beginning but it changes to a mellow, muted fusion song, beautiful. In "Rock'n'Rolex" ex "Sieges Even" guitarist Wolfgang Zenk comes up with nice melodies and insane guitar solos. Same with "Perpentuum Mobile". 7for4 outpaces Liquid Tension Experiment at times, apart from the Fusion featured here. What follows is a welcome break after the last very rapid songs. It's the second part of the title song, again very beautiful and calm...in the beginning. In the second half the song changes to a prog metal tune with a long guitar solo, but no shredding here, it's a melodic one. "Flux Capacitor", you may know this thing from "Back to the Future" with Michael J. Fox. The song is made up of jazzy and prog metal parts and yet again, incredible breaks. "Burnt chicken wings" is...Country-Prog? Well, it's a really funny tune and another highlight. The last tune "Slow [e]motion" is a calm and worthy closure of an amazing album. 7for4 is a superlatively interesting band featuring lots of different influences and styles. As I said before, they can be generally gegarded as either prog metal or fusion. Due to their various ingredients it's hard to find similar bands. Maybe it can be regarded as a mixture of Liquid Tension Experiment and the Mahavsihnu Orchestra if you want. Maybe Mastermind's "Excelsior!" is another good example. But "Time" is much more frisky, you can almost hear how many fun it is to play this music and that's what I've seen live, four guys having a lot of fun playing this crazy music. You have to listen to the samples on their homepage. Highly recommended! - Review by & © diddy **** /5 Posted Saturday, November 06, 2004 © Prog Archives, All rights reserved http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6285
7FOR4 are four very talented guys from Munich/Germany. Maybe talented is not the right term here because all four dispose of experience and know-how. Wolfgang Zenk who impresses with his virtuos guitar playing was a member of the German prog metal band SIEGES EVEN (which can also be found in the Prog Archives) as well as leader and lecturer of MGI München (Munich), Germany's best known institute for professional guitar education. Markus Grützner played bass for several Jazz/Fusion bands and did so on several European tours of the well known Broadway musical "Hair". Klaus Engl also is a lecturer, he works for the drum-institute "Drummer's Focus" and played together with Markus Grützner in a Heavy-Rock band. The keyboard player Markus Froschmeier has his roots in the classical genre and adds some of his influences to the general sound of the band. Speaking about general sound I have to mention that it is quite difficult to find a term describing the style applicatively. Besides the fact that the music is all instrumental, you can say that it is a mixture of Prog Metal and Jazz Rock/Fusion, sounding as if LTE and the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA get together. But nearly every song seems to have different influences so you can find tunes with a country, "gypsy music" or Brazilian samba flavour, most of it played incredibly fast. The band released two albums so far. The first one called "Contact" was released in 2001. Their current album is called "Time" and was released in 2004. Both albums are incredible and feature the quite unique sound I described above as well as awesome cover artwork. You can't say which of them is the better one. My suggestion is that you purchase both. With that said I can end with mentioning that I really recommend checking out this terrific band. If you have the chance to get one of their albums, don't wait and grape it. If you even have the chance to see them live, don't falter, I can tell you that it's really worth the effort, I've seen them and they really blew me away. © Martin Dietrich, GERMANY © Prog Archives, All rights reserved http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1279
7 for 4 is a largely instrumental progressive metal project led by guitarist Wolfgang Zenk, a former member of Sieges Even. Zenk has also produced all the band's albums to date. The band have released three albums through MGI records between 2001 and 2008, but have not achieved major commercial success. As is typical in the genre and in similar bands such as Liquid Tension Experiment and Liquid Trio Experiment, each 7 for 4 composition typically takes in elements from several different genres. For example, "E-Gyptian" contains strong elements of both Latin American and metal genres. - Wiki
Good album in the progressive fusion mould with metal, jazz, Latin hard rock, country and Canterbury rock touches. The album contains complex rhythms and music played with impressive virtuosity. There are no outstanding tracks here but you will be surprised by the high standard of musicianship. Listen to the band’s “Contact” album which has more inventiveness [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 128 Mb]
TRACKS
1. Zeitgeist (4:45)
2. TempERAmento (5:10)
3. Where Are You Now (7:46)
4. 7:44 am (5:26)
5. Time (Chapter I) (5:32)
6. Rock'n'Rolex (5:07)
7. Perpetuum Mobile (5:57)
8. Time (Chapter II) (4:06)
9. Flux Capacitor (6:33)
10. Burnt Chicken Wings (6:05)
11. Slow [e] Motion (1:55)
All tracks composed by Wolfgang Zenk
MUSICIANS
Wolfgang Zenk – Guitars
Markus Grutzner – Bass
Markus Froschmeier – Keyboards
Klaus Engel – Drums
Conny Kreitmeier – Vocals on Track 4
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