WELCOME TO THE UNKNOWN

I was a little surprised to be sent this album, as I wasn't exactly wonderfully kind about their 2014 release 'Closed Doors To Open Plains', but I can see that there have been some changes in the band since the last one. Guitarist Florian Wenzel and sole remaining founder member Dirk Berger (bass, keyboards, vocals) have dispensed with the services of drummer Marco Grühn and Malte Twarloh (vocals, guitars, keyboards), and have brought in drummer Julian Hielscher so are now a trio as opposed to a quartet. One of the major issues I had with the last album was the quality of the vocals, and I still believe that to be an area of weakness, but not nearly as much of a problem as it was last time around.

Musically the band are a solid neo prog outfit, with quite a concentration on guitars, and it is when they are playing more straight forward rock that they shine. "Plans To Make Plans" is a good example of this, with the backing vocals of Christina Mielke adding a touch of lightness to the overall sound. I definitely prefer this to the last album, and generally the production is good, with some particularly strong bass, but I believe that if they invested in a quality singer then we may be talking about them in a different light. Neo prog fans would do well to seek this out, but it is one to listen to first.