2003 will be a great year for fans of 80’s metal. Iron Maiden will do a large number of shows and have a new album in the making. Metallica is doing the same with the upcoming album St. Anger. Of course these are two of the big names. The underground is also well represented this year. The new Exhibition album, for example. Exhibition was founded after the Eternity X split up in 1998. Exhibition plays melodic yet powerful prog metal, with Dream Theater and Iron Maiden as their main influences. But there’s more to Exhibition than just these influences. When listening to the new album The Sign Of Tomorrow you can also hear some influences from Nightwish. Especially in the keyboard parts, which are supported by down tuned guitars. One thing that caught my attention the second I first heard the album is the production. All instruments and vocals have been mixed very well. A tight steamrolling sound can be found throughout the album. The drums pound through, guitars go from catchy 80’s riffs to some pretty cool leads here and there and singer Bobby Lucas (nick named “Leather Lungs”) proves that his lung capacity can match that of a Bruce Dickinson, for example.

As I said before, the Dream Theater and Iron Maiden influences are the first to come to mind. Unfortunately, these influences aren’t just influences. After listening to the album a few times, it becomes more and more clear that they sound a lot like these two bands. Makes you wonder if they’re not just copying material. Not very original… The only aspect that distinguishes Exhibition from Dream Theater and Iron Maiden are the keyboards which give Exhibition’s music a nice twist. I’ll finish this review by saying that Exhibition does a nice job with this album, but have yet to find their own sound. It’s a very catchy album, containing 9 songs well above 3 minutes, and will interest prog metal fans. The band just needs to break away from that typical 80’s sound a little.