MACBETHIA

This is the debut of Japan's own SOCIAL TENSION. A trio of keyboards, drums and bass and influenced greatly by ELP. They released two studio albums and this is the debut from 1989. Just about everyone who has compared the two albums has chosen this one, the debut as their favourite but I prefer the followup from 1990 slightly. The year1989 wasn't exactly the mecca for good music but it was only released in Japan so it wasn't easy to get or even hear about. Japanese vocals too but this is about the keyboards dominating the sound as in piano, synths, organ and mellotron. I like when the bass comes to the fore which isn't a lot unfortunately. The highlight has to be the side long almost 20 minute title track which is broken down into three sections. Having said that my favourite is "Inner Visions" because of the powerful sections which work so well against the atmospheric passages. We get more vocals on this compared to the follwup as well.

This album is Symphonic and complex with some outstanding moments just about always involving the keyboardist.