CHRONOMETREE

I was in a music store, once, and a huge prog-fan suggested this to me. Without listening, but only after talking on my preferred ones and on the style of GH... I bought it. It was in about 2001 !! There I am now rating and describing it, on my way on going for all GH CD's. Another note on this : in those years, I went for buying a new CD player / amp, and I brought a few CD's, including this one. I tried music suggested (and owned) by the dealer, along with Chronometree. The specialist (HiFi store) said that the sound quality of this opus from GH was... surpassing the ones he let me listen to ! It was the first track. So, if you want to test a sound system, I suggest "Empty Space & Revealer". You have everything in the whole range of frequencies plus a superb quality and a good prog song !

Chrono- is of course characterized by the keyboard sounds of Fred, one of the very best in the business (I see him easily in the Top-5). You now see more what you can look for : it is keyboard/mellotron/moog oriented. Some might dislike (and they are not shy to show it, when we see very low ratings here !), but I have to say it delights me. Unfortunately, there are moments I often jump over, because of the unusual voice of the singer (tracks #2 and 5, which are ballads), on which that bad effect is more apparent. However, the others are excellent. The first track is power, energy, odd-tempo rythms, with the main theme well developped and easy to recognize on other tracks. All the other tracks are all excellent, wherein the compositions are much complex, with tempo changes, solos and a good presence of guitar (of course ! Arjen Lucassen participated). Plus the all-CD concept idea of communicating with outer-space... The excellent ones are then "Revelation", "Chronotheme", tracks #7-8 who are linked featuring a few superb Fred's solos, "The Waiting" which is high- power... and my favorite "Chronos Deliverer" all-instrumental (remember my comment on the singer's voice !). I tried to learn it on my keyboard, and it looks easy; but, it is not, because of the tone and intensity changes. A remarkable effect, and it should be added that it does not sound like a lot of other prog songs; quite distinct and unique. When they play this one 'live', they are 3 keyboardists !

With Chronometree, GH became my favorite prog-2000 group for some years, and especially when I discovered the rest, before and after Chrono. Their main quality, after you know the keys are omnipresent, is the production. And my favorites ones are "Lex Rex" and "Inconsolable Secret". Unfortunately, I get less and less satisfaction with the recent ones (coming soon...).

I think the low points are less important in this one, than the strong ones. And a global score of 4/5 appears to me to be reflecting my feelings. And... the cover is nice !