THE INTRIGUE OF PERCEPTION

Third album from our Heuveland group with an unchanged line-up, even though they had to find a new label. Graced with a very aerial artwork and intriguing titles, the group seems to veer away from the classic proggish Southern-fried classic rock of their first two albums. Clearly Steven Marx is the man the group is courting on to widen their sound and obviously this objective is clearly met.

Bolting off with the almost 8-mins Endless Void on some ultra loud guitars and some yelling vocals passages underlined a tron of mello, the album is off the starting blocks and at cruising speed less than 2 minutes after pushing play. Marx's wild sax parts are reminiscent of VdGG's Jaxon in this opener. Following up with Good Sinner on groovy bass and a swingy sax, a sexy almost 10-min Morphine-like (the group, not the drug) semi-jam track (bar the spacey guitar solo), the album plunges into a personal/intimate alternative rock feel, while being resolutely progressive. The 6-min+ Third Nature starts out on a mellow touch, but huge guitars and quiet saxes come in to shake the listener from any eventual torpor. The loud All My Life is more of a Southern rock ala Lynyrd or .38 Special track and remains thankfully short and Island On The Sun is reminiscent of the Floyd-inspired Porcupine Tree. The ambient 5- min XXX track with whale-singing soon relayed by a lonely horn is a prelude to the 8-mins Castle In The Sky, which happens to be a second highlight in the album. The closing Absent Friend is a sub par Porcupine, but remains honest enough to make a correct closure of the present album.

This third album is yet another step in the right direction, and should please most progheads liking Porcupine Tree and some Southern rock. The only negative remark are the all-too insistence of the under-the-breath vocals that seems to be permanently filtered. Strangely enough while the group seemed on a roll, especially with a new recording deal in its flight cases, Hypnos 69 would take over two years to record another album, but was it ever worth the wait.

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