Sometimes, if you’re patient and hopeful enough, a truly wondrous occurrence will happen the first time you listen to a new band, where a feeling will wash over you that contains several different emotions and realizations. It’s that feeling where you know that the band you are listening to is truly something special, something important, and that the members within are truly passionate about and proud of the music that they are creating, ecstatic that they have the opportunity to share their creation with the world. Now, these bands are EXTREMELY rare, especially in the power metal genre, where about ninety five percent of all bands are content with being third-rate Gamma Ray and Edguy clones. But French band Qantice is altogether different than anything I’ve ever heard before, being the best power metal band out of France since Heavenly, and the most promising new metal band I’ve heard since I first listened to Versailles’ debut.

Quantice’s very first album, The Cosmocinesy (Say it with me: Cos-Mo-Shin-Ess-See), is a concept album set in a sci-fi world that shares the band’s name, and though I couldn’t find any lyrics online to help make more sense of the story, apparently the band will soon be releasing their own novel to fully tell the tale that they have conjured. And don’t think that my lack of knowledge on the lyrics is because of a poor French accent courtesy of the vocalist; Vincent Pichereau is pretty good, and though his vibrato is a bit lacking, he does have quite a range, and his singing is packed with emotion at all times.

But a good singer is worthless if the music he’s singing to is garbage, but on The Cosmocinesy, the music couldn’t be further from; Imagine a much more symphonic variation of Angra with just a touch of bouncy folk metal added in, and you have a fairly good idea of what to expect here, but nothing will prepare you for what awaits you on this wonderful debut until you actually give it a listen. Budding From The Mist is the album’s short symphonic intro, and is very dream-like in quality, instantly grabbing you and transporting you into the world of Qantice (Both the band and the planet) with some orchestrations that remind me much of the Titatnic film score. It then abruptly breaks into Head Over Worlds, which begins with a tribal riff before exploding into a highly progressive and melodic power metal track, with odd tempo changes and unconventional time signatures abound, complete with an inventive solo and a soaring chorus.

But this is only the beginning; following Head Over Worlds is Pirates, a very fun and folk oriented song that gives you a feeling of being at a pirate “Ball”, if you will. Then comes Megantrop, one of the most symphonic songs on The Cosmocinesy that could easily stand up with Angra’s best moments; the singer is really given the chance to show off his range here too, especially in the chorus. The Hero That You Need is a shiner with oddball melodies and symphonic arrangements that you wouldn’t expect from a band like this, and The Question is a simple yet beautiful song, sounding more like a traditional melodic power metal track than anything else on the record. A few really silly, tongue-in-cheek orchestrations are featured here (There’s several of these scattered across the album, which really adds to its overall charm), and the chorus is very powerful in its simplicity, the melody being both cheerful and yearning at the same time. You also have your two token ballads here, Ocean Eclipse and Best In The Well, the latter serving as what I can assume is a nice way to conclude the story of The Cosmocinesy, before The Least Worst Ending arrives as an ending instrumental that serves as a sort of end credits theme with tons of different melodies; Qantice does categorize itself as “Movie Metal”, after all.

Unfortunately, The Cosmocinesy has two (Minor) flaws. The first is the song Burial Wave, which, though it features some interesting symphonic arrangements, fails to match the quality of the rest of the songs, but at least it fits in well with the flow of the album. The second is the production; this album was home-recorded, and though that disadvantage is remarkably unrecognizable, the instruments do lack a certain “Umph” that could’ve raised the album’s score by a point or two. But these two small annoyances don’t matter in the scope of the album, and shouldn’t at all dissuade your decision on whether or not you should give Qantice and The Cosmocinesy a go. Basically, if you’re a fan of progressive, melodic, or fast paced power metal, and of symphonic music in general (But be warned, this is fairly cheesy stuff), then I wholly recommend you buy this album right away. The band will even send you the CD with the booklet autographed if you order it from their site; how’s that for fan service? Qantice is clearly eager to share The Cosmocinesy with anyone willing to listen, and I’m just as excited to be sharing this unknown gem with all of you reading this. Don’t let this pass you by!