Origin:	Germany
Genres:	Progressive Metal
DISBANDED

Last update/review:	June 25, 2003

House Of Spirits

House Of Spirits was a semi-continuation of the band known as Jester's March, with two members from that band joining forces with de facto German drummer Jörg Michael (who else would one want to drum for a German metal band?) and Mekong Delta guitarist Uwe Baltrusch. A 1994 debut, Turn Of The Tide, was released, but by 1996 numerous label and management problems had taken their toll on the band, and they broke up. In 1998 an old demo tape found its way to the Century Media offices, who were interested enough to get the band to record their second and last album, Psychosphere, in 1999. Musically, Turn Of The Tide is regarded as a lost prog metal treasure, stylistically very strongly reminiscient of Rage For Order* or *Mindcrime-era Queensryche, with vocalist Olaf Bilic excelling, sounding much more comfortable and better here than he did in Jester's March. Psychosphere, on the other hand, disappointed some, being less Queensryche-influenced (though it's still there in places) and somewhat more mainstream, though at the same time a bit more diverse in style. All the pieces were in place for this band to break worldwide, but the aforementioned internal struggles prevented this from ever happening.