POWER

Second part of the 80's finds North Star in some sort of a hiatus with the band members focusing on their solo or other projects and Kevin Leonard being the most productive of all, recording no less than three albums at the dawn of the 90's.It was about the same time when Dave Johnson decided to return and retake the guitar duties, setting the spark for the third North Star album.Simply entitled ''Power'', this album was released in 1992 on the band's own label Space Monster Optional Entertainment.Kevin Leonard was responsible for the engineering and production of this work besides his duties as a keyboardist.

With ''Power'' North Star appear to move a bit away from the big symphonic moments of their previous works and offer a more typical Neo Prog style akin to MARILLION, IQ and compatriots ILUVATAR.Of course this does not mean that they left their strong GENESIS inspirations behind.The album features nice electroacoustic changes with atmospheric synthesizers and theatrical, GABRIEL-esque vocals, creating vintage images, while there are still plenty of symphonic hints in the keyboard work.But they just added a more rockin' flavor in the guitar parts, while the synthesizers follow the edgy sound of the 80's British bands.The music remains at a sufficient level as always with decent melodies, sensitive textures, more grandiose deliveries and extended room for instrumental mannerisms with Leonard being mainly the man leading the way with angular solos and flashy offerings, supported by the welcome addition of Dave Johnson and his energetic guitar style.Bass remains among the band's hot spots, very deep and dynamic, but the strong similarities with MARILLION are maybe a bit disturbing on specific tracks.Good thing is that there are no weak moments in ''Power'', the music is always well-arranged and balanced, lacking though one or a couple of killer tracks.

Well-executed Neo Prog by the Americans, who flirt strongly with British-styled Prog.Not an extraordinary work, but definitely one to offer the listener plenty of inspired moments.Recommended.