STRING THEORY

Just 3 weeks ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Majestic's 2009 release "Arrival" (5 Stars from me). Now I am taking a trip with the band and I went to the 2014 new release Epsilon 1 (4.5 Stars from me) going to their second release "String Theory" which was released in 2008. At this point in Majestic's career the instrumentation and vocals are almost all done by Jeff Hamel. On "Worlds Apart" features a female vocalist named Di who counters Jeff's vocals. In all honesty, I wished Di was the primary singer with Jeff concentrating on the instrumentation and some backing vocals. The best tracks on the album are "Circles" and "Maiden Voyage" On String Theory, there's 10 songs ranging from 3 to 9 minutes. Plus there's two acoustic songs as bonus tracks. The listener is treated to the evolution of Jeff Hamel and Majestic with the better songs on the next album, Arrival. This is an important album to get as it ranges from fluid Pink Floydism to some aggressive guitar work.. Oh there's another guest player on the song "Tonight" in the form of a flautist named Elzbeita In closing, this is a vital part of Majestic's history. I would recommend listening to String Theory first then Arrival afterwards. You'll get a sense of the evolution of this one man band plus. This is recommended for fans of melodic progressive rock with some metallic guitar parts. Solid 4 Star from me!

The second album of Majestic aka Jeff Hamel was released in 2008, just a few months after ''Descension''.The material of this work was again written a few years back, but -unlike Majestic's debut- this one was released on Andromeda Recordings, following a commitment of the artist to the label.Some vocal parts are credited to a man named Di and the only flute part of the album to a figure named Elzbieta.The title was ''String theory'', expect no strings to appear in this work with the title refering to the invisible bands of energy dominating the universal space.

As aforementioned, no string are expected to be heard, expect though to listen to lots of spacey and orchestral underlines in such a cosmic concept album, wrapped in the already set Heavy/Neo Prog style of Majestic.The music follows the sensibilities of PINK FLOYD and PORCUPINE TREE with heavy contexts surrounded by ethereal textures with Hamel providing a balance between melodic and atmospheric passages.He calls his album ''symphonic'', but this one gets much along the lines of COSMOGRAF, NINE STONES CLOSE and RIVERSEA, flirting with old and modern styles in an equal manner.Guitars are the leading instruments with plenty of electric leads and some acoustic overtones (where GENESIS come in mind), featuring nice grooves and solos with heavier runs and some psychedelic distortions, but the concept is always surrounded by some gransiose keyboard parts with spacey and orchestral inspirations.Vocals are expressive and powerful, albeit not of first-class, and the whole work runs easily, based on the endless changing climates and the ability of Hamel to combine perfectly melody and atmosphere.Apart from the grandiose keyboard background, there are also plenty of dynamic synth flashes with the Neo Prog influences becoming more than apparent during these moments.''Tonight'', the only track with flutes, is a great attempt by Hamel on a more retro-styled Prog Rock and a more laid-back, almost CAMEL-esque enviroment, certainly among the most versatile pieces of the album.

Jeff Hamel was here to stay and not releasing his personal work would be a shame.This is some pretty nice modern Prog with lots of energy, passion and interesting ideas, featuring the great talents of an emerging Prog composer.Recommended.