VENUS

I saw them open for FK in Verviers as they were promoting this album and after three numbers we went out to grab a bite and came back for the Flower Kings. After three numbers from them we went out for another bite and came back in the middle of the show and went out again as a few people left were asking for more , we went home early , never knowing if the FK did an encore or not (did not lose sleep over it0 . All was not lost on that dreadful night though . At least the pizzas were good.

This was the first Everon's self produced album... And the beginning of the real Everon's trademark sound!

Oliver Phillips and Christian Moos inaugurated their prestigious Spacelab Studio with this record, and they got a really good production. The guitar sound is killer, like the drums... Marvellous work here!

In "Venus" we can appreciate a heavier work that their two previous albums "Paradoxes" and "Flood", but least heavy than their upcoming masterpiece "Fantasma". For that, we can say that this is a transition album... With great songs like the hard rocking Missing The Last Train, Information Overdose, the romatic Real Me, the heart touching What Do We Know and the killer instrumental Meteor. The only track I don't like very much from this album is Util The Day Breaks, a little boring in my opinion.

The lyrics on this album are a little most personal than the two previous, starting to show the sentimental way of writing by Oliver Phillips, something that would become an Everon's trademark in future releases. I feel very touched by lyrics like Real Me...

Best Tracks: Real Me (a very beautiful Everon's typical ballad... And the first one!), Information Overdorse (a little album's classic...), Meteor (great instrumental track, with an outstanding Oliver's playing) and What do we Know (I specially like the verses and the soft guitar layers)

Conclusion: a very recommended album for people who like the 80's progressive/symphonic rock (Asia, Saga, Rush...) but in a heavier way... And the album where Everon achieved a more personal sound, wich was later totally pefectionated in "Fantasma". So although "Venus" is not the best Everon's release, I strongly recommend this album to everyone, because it has enough good moments te be an excellent additon to a prog music collection.

My rating: ****

A great cd. Venus is the third album from this Dutch progressive rock band. The band's inspirations are coming basically from Rush,Pink Floyd, IQ but they haven't stolen anything. They play with their own style and I can assure you that it is a good one. Beautiful melodies, great job on the guitars, and a very good rhythm section combine together to give us an interesting result. The artwork on the cover is really beautiful and the booklet is unfolding to form a very nice poster. It looks like all Progressive fans have found another good CD, for their library.The title track "Venus" opens the album. This is a short instrumental with soaring guitars and full keyboards. It drips class and quality and sets the stage wonderfully for the rest of the album. "Venus" flows straight into "Missing The Last Train." This shows the rocky foundations of Everon. Strong riffs, bass and drums over-laid with keyboard decoration. In saying that, this is not dull, unimaginative metal riffing, this has changes in tempo and key to match the best proggers. Oliver's vocals are mildly accented with his English almost too true to be native. "Real Me" is more mellow; still a full sound though with Oliver's ivory-tickling being particularly effective. My picks for the best songs are are Meteor, What Do We Know, Venus, Missing The Last Train, and Real Me. Good tunes.

'Venus', released in 1998, was Everon's 3rd studio album, and the successor to 'Flood', which saw the band move to the larger Mascot Records, after SI Records went bankrupt. They continued musically in a similar vein, although in general the album has a softer, more polished production as a consequence of the move. Although the musical variety continues to diversify, it ultimately didn't produce a noticeably stronger album than 'Flood', once again very pleasing but not groundbreaking.

For the first time, 'Venus' contains a couple of instrumentals, the short opener, 'Venus' which uses a soaring guitar sound over keyboards, and the rockier 'Meteor', slighlty more in the vein of a 'Rush' solo.

Once again, I return to the feeling that Everon's stronger material generally lies in the longer tracks, most of which are situated toward the end of the album. Both 'Reply' and 'Not For Sale' are able to summon up both sufficient interplay between guitar and keyboard to keep prog fans happy, while instilling the kind of emotion which fans of Enchant's later work (especially 'Blink Of An Eye') would appreciate. The undoubted highlight of the album however is the closer, 'Until The Day Breaks', which is to me possibly the finest track penned by Everon, as it is not only a complex composition, but incredibly emotive and angst ridden, as Philipps sings, as if in desperation 'Moonlight, You're my only reason to live tonight, Stir my passion, stir my instincts, cast my shadow on the wall'. This track is worth the purchase alone.

However, 'Venus' isn't without flaws, hence the 3 star rating. After 'Venus', the album starts well, with the very catchy, radio friendly 'Missing The Last Train', however the heart of the album is filled with unexceptional ballads (of which, 'What Do We Know?' is possibly the most unexceptional, and simply too long at 7 minutes) and in 'Information Overdose', Everon offer a straight forward rocker by numbers, which carries no surprises.

In conclusion, 'Venus' for me is a frustrating album, in that it demonstrates how the band have developed a style which is very much their own within the Art-Prog genre, and indeed are capable of writing excellent material. The ability to write an entire album of consistent quality however, still eluded them.

Two days ago a band from Germany delight my ears, Everon. A band between Saga and Enchant in my opinion. Some very good keys parts through the album, Real me and Meteor the finest Everon on this album. Meteor with a touch of Vinnie Moore, and teh rest of the tracks are more than average. 3 stars, worth check out this band.

First two Everon albums were worth while but with the third I notice they take their songwriting to another level at least where some of the songs are concerned. And then I'm talking about the second half of the album. The first 5 songs are ok but nothing special with those. But What do we know and Not for sale are already a lot better moving towards 4 starratings. The instrumental Meteor (pretty energetic !) and Reply are even over 4 stars to me but the real grand finale is the masterpiecetrack Until the day breaks. This one is a real majestic song with an impressive build up.

I think this improvement in songwriting might as well be shown in the rating. But if I have to be really specific the rating is 3.6 overall, rounded up to 4 stars.

Everon is kind of a mistery to me. I can´t really tell why (hence the mistery?). Their musicanship is obviously enormous, as it is the talent of their singer/guitarrist/keyboardsman/songwriter Oliver Philips. Acutually this is the kind of guy you can call genius: he is obviously too much an original talent to be ignored, even if you don´t like his work. Still their music did not grab me at first, even after repeated listenings.

Everon takes a lot to sink in, at least for me. Their music is far from what you call neo progressive (although some Marillion influences can be traced here and there). The music is nothing like you should expect from someone influenced by Pink Floyd, Camel or early Genesis (that´s what I call neo prog). In fact it is very original and interesting, although quite accessible. I remember I bought this album because of the much praised reviews in many magazines I saw at the time of its release, but could not like it in the very same way I did not immediatly enjoyed their follow up (the equally praised Fantasma). Sometimes I thought their music was too heavy to be plain prog, but also too proggy to be metal. Yet it was not prog metal in any way. Heavy prog would be a more fitting maybe, but their music is hard to label.

As for the technical aspects of this CD, there is not much to complain. The production done by Philips himself with drummer Moos is top notch. Philips is quite convincing as a singer, although I think some people will have trouble ajusting to his style of vocal delivering. All his songs are very emotional and strong, combining the lush keyboards with bursts of heavy guitars and drumming (but again not in the prog metal vein). Not much noodling here, fortunatly. Those guys can cut it, but they use their obvious great technique to enhance the music as a whole rather than go for ego trips.

It was only recently I found Venus to be a CD of high caliber. After sitting in my shelf for years I decided to give it another chance and I was astonished by its sheer power and melodies. Ok, I agree with most reviewers here in PA: there is no middle ground with Everon, you either hate it or love it. Although it took some time to make up my mind about it, I came to find I love it. Some prog works are hard to understand and enjoy. Everon is surely one of them, but I´m glad I did give them another shot. Looking for something both unique, strong and accessible? Try this one. Four strong stars.