SHOW

Have said it some time ago, but believe it gets more evident every day "Beware with the Eastern Europeans", this guys are taking Symphonic Prog by assault, not only creating new, original and fresh material, but making the sub-genre richer with the ethnic influences from their native countries.

This has been happening mostly since 1995, but AFTER CRYING from Hungary is one of the pioneers of this new approach to Symphonic Prog, and we must thank them for that. As the Russians during the Romantic Nationalist Movement of the late 1800's, this bands full of classically trained musicians are refusing to follow the patterns created by the British or Western Europe to create their own, new and unique sound...God bless them for that.

After the release of the good "After Crying 6", the band took six years to release this album ("Show") and it was worth waiting, the band solidified their approach towards Classical music and the change of vocalist makes them stronger, Legradi Gabor adds his excellent range to the already great band.

The album is opened with "N.W.C" (New World Coming). a song that reminds a bit of the Middle Age with a touch of modernity in the syncopated percussion. The darkness and mystery creates a special atmosphere very reminiscent of Romanian music and the orchestration is superb.

"Invisible Legion" is a lengthy track that starts with a very long instrumental intro which goes "in crescendo" until a winds and percussion in the vein of Mussorgsky gives a touch of sobriety that leaves the listener in expectation not knowing what is coming next, but the mystery is never revealed, because the music keeps growing in strength and energy keeping the suspense until the end where an unexpected viola and flute soft passage closes the track.

"Face to Face" radically changes the mood to a faster and vibrant track in which the orchestra, piano and electric guitar create a beautiful blend of different influences and atmospheres, but as if they had horror to emptiness, the frantic melody continues, while the band adds more and more instruments, when again the listener is clueless about how this will end, the music ceases in an instant.

"Welcome on Board" is simply fantastic, at last the strong folk sound I expected appears, the sweet voice of Judit Andrejszki adds that Carpathian Mountains atmosphere, later her inter-work with the masculine vocalist is just perfect, outstanding track.

"Paradise Lost presents us a viola introduction with a gypsy reminiscence which fast changes into some sort of late intro by the whole orchestra, a perfect interlude to prepare us for the next track, but nothing can prepare the listener for the radical change in "Remote Control", now the band decides to Rock but without listening the orchestral background, hey there's even some sort of Rap in the middle and a radio transmission which leads to a jazzy finale...You don't know what to expect with this guys, and that's excellent.

"Technopolis" starts as an instruction message for a program installation in humans. All vocal with a mysterious keyboard background, while the music goes in crescendo, the vocal starts to fade until suddenly a radical change shocks the listener, a strong piano in the vein of Rachmaninoff with the orchestra playing some sort of Avant chaotic section, totally frenetic with no rest, as if the band had fear to leave a single fraction of second without a sound, a complex synth work joins the piano that starts to move towards Jazz, again the changes are constant until the surprising and abrupt finale.

"Globevillage at Night" is a short melodic piano interlude that connects with the furious introduction of "Bone Squad", martial organ, rhythmic drums and powerful winds lead to a distorted vocal section, not a single change in the music from start to end, but keeps the listener in suspense.

"Wanna be a Member?" starts with the whole band giving 100%, again some sort of rap joins the band, to be honest, by this point this type of songs without variations start to get a bit boring, not even the female chorus keeps my interest.

"Secret Service" is a good change, after an atmospheric keyboard introduction, the song turns into a soft ballad with interesting guitar interruptions that leads to a folksy violin passage with some gypsy reminiscences, but again the band surprises the listener with a total change into a confusing section which reminds me a bit of Peter Gunn with an Avant mood, excellent song.

The album ends with two opposite songs, the soft and melodic "Farewell" and the frenetic and unexpected "Life Must Go On" in which AFTER CRYING hits us with everything they have, very strong closer.

Not the best AFTER CRYING album, because the Hungarian folk is not as evident as in other works, and that's the main attraction of this band, but still very good and original material that deserves no less than 4 stars.