PROMISE OF A NEW MOON

Third album from this Eastern Flemish trio, and their very efficient Southern fried-stoner boogie RnR is showing signs of progginess. The Houtmayers pair are still dishing out power chords and incessant drums, while bassist Vanlear provides an exciting background, sharing the keyboards work with the guitarist. There is the odd sax line thrown in by Steven Marx, but apparently he doesn't get much else to do, something that would change in later albums. With a rather brown "automobilic" artwork, this album shows the group getting more experience and outbreak of the prog zits, which should lead them to maturity..

Indeed, when listening to the first few opening tracks of the album, one can detect a Southern rock that oozes Spin Doctors (circa the phenomenal Pocketful Of Kryptonite) meeting some progmetal group ala Royal Hunt or Angra. Much of the group's finesse is in the tightness of their arrangements and the shorter songs are really concise. As soon as the tracks get a little longer (the 8-min+ Devil Knows My Name and its successor Burning Ambition) the groups cannot hide their will to let it all hang out and go into extended Jam Rock. And when the 7-min+ These Are The Dreams breaks out, the prog comes out blowing out a superb jazzy space rock. No one doubts that with a title like Kaleidoscope Voyager the musical adventures will follow and indeed, the dark rock goes into a slow Anekdoten-like groove before the all-too rare sax takes a blow and the superb 7-mins+ instrumental Dragondance is the second highlight of the album. Weirdly enough the groups chooses to close on an atypical track Married To The sea, which closer to new wave than anything else: a cross of Stranglers meeting Talking Heads and

OK, soooooo... Hypnos 69 can also play goofy new wave stuff.. I'm not sure it was wise to ruin this album by proving they could. Better think straighter next times, Jongens. Outside that slight dumb slip-up and a Southern-fried boogie start, Promise Of A New Moon is definitely an album that's worth your time and investment, especially if you like your classic rock fresh and varied.

The least that I can say is that this album sounds really heavy (Burning Ambition) and very average (The Devil Knows My Name). If, at times, the band sounded spacey during their first album, this feeling is almost completely erased from their second offering. Fully heavy prog, at best.

Burning Ambition is more of an improvised song which turns to be attractive after three minutes. The awful and shouting vocals are evacuated and a pleasant jam can take place and lead to a devastating break. A softer mood, just to allow the listener to take a breathe of fresh air, is taking place for a while but the crazy beat will go on till the end. A pity, these vocals.

Cradle Rock is no lullaby either. The band remains in very heavy territory. The bass play is again excellent (but Tom Van Laer was already fantastic on their debut album). Another furious song.

The first song which might be considered fully spacey is These Are Dreams. Not very inspired, I'm afraid : no real structure, somewhat improv oriented. But PT has done better in this style.

One of the best song from Promise Of A New Moon is the ambient The Kaleidoscope Voyager. Very good drumming for this quieter song. More in the vein of their debut. The rhythm is picking up nicely towards the end, while a great guitar solo enters the scene.

My fave and fully PT oriented song is Dragondance. Some metal flavours are beautifully flourishing in this instrumental piece. A highlight. It should have been nice to close this album on such a high note because Married To The Sea is very much dispensable.

Three stars for this work.