CROSS

The Thrill of Nothingness marks the latest chapter in the Cross saga, and I would say this is the strongest Cross album to date. Its funny, I dont think frontman Hansi Cross realizes just how good they are when they go acoustic, because it is so rare and brief when they do. But those brief and rare moments are wonderful.

For the most part, the album is heavy, with big chords, and emotional melodies. Hansi's electric guitar playing is excellent, with touches of Andy Latimer and Allan Holdsworth. The one thing that would make this album stronger is a great vocalist. Hansi's voice is probably similar in quality to Steve Howe's. However, much of the album is instrumental.

The first six tracks are very much in keeping with the high quality of 'Secrets' and 'Playgrounds'. No complaints there, (especially 'Innocence' with its powerful chord progressions.) But, then comes.'Eternity', which is easily my favorite Cross song to date. This is a wonderful track, carrying an almost magical Genesis-type feel. A wonderful way to close the album.

The limited edition includes a disc 2, 'The Thrill of Somethingness', which is just about as good as disc one. A bit more variety on this one perhaps, and like the first disc, quite consistantly good. My only complaint is that music of this calibre needs a singer to match.

The most recent album from Swedish proggers Cross is easily the best of theirs that I have heard to date. Intricate and sometimes quite menacing (check out opener "Bleeding In Silence") with good musical interplay, all fans of modern prog will enjoy this album. A few guests add some extra touches (such as cello), but for the most part this trio rock on quite nicely with no outside help. Hansi Cross provides guitars/synths/vocals while Lollo Andersson is on bass/Taurus and Tomas Hjort is on drums.

It is very accessible album, one that can be listened to and enjoyed immediately. I nearly didn't hear the 'hidden' piece of music as the first time I played the album I turned it off when the last song ended. The next time I was too far away from the player, and after a while I heard some keyboard chords and wondered where it was coming from. I didn't see much point of this unless it was to see if reviewers were listening to the album all of the way through!! They move through one style to another very comfortably and while this may not be groundbreaking progressive music, it is very nice all the same and I for one enjoyed it.

Feedback #60, Oct 2000

I remember reviewing an album by Cross which was released on Cyclops some time ago, but I know that they had released other albums even then. They have now set up their own label and their latest album is its' first release, but with no biog I can further very little else.

Cross are based around lead singer/guitarist (plus extra keys and mandolin) Hansi Cross, although the others do get some input on some of the songs. This is soaring prog, with large elements of Eighties Genesis and Pendragon, and at some points, it is almost Camel-esque. While there are many intricate passages, the focus is much more on songs with a purpose instead of meandering aimlessly.

While the vocals are important, the main elements are the interplay between the guitar and keyboards along with some very strong, almost tribal, rhythms. An album that I have enjoyed playing immensely.

Feedback #59, July 2000

This album by CROSS comprises good combination of keyboard and guitars as main soloists, accompanied with good rhythm section comprising drums and bass. It's good for a musical break after you might have been bombarded with hard-edge progressive metal or even metal music. The music of "Playgrounds" is quite relaxing - the music flows smoothly from one segment to another with transition pieces of guitar and / or keyboard solos. It's typical neo prog music vein.

"Let The Play Begin... "(7:37) is a keyboard-based composition in relatively medium tempo that combines a floating singing style, nice guitar solo and multi-layer keyboard sounds. The music flows smoothly, featuring different kind of segments - those overlaid with guitar solo or keyboard works. If you listen to this track, it's recommended to set high volume on your amplifier and you would get subtleties of the music.

"Dejá Vù" (4:36) continues the music almost seamlessly with soft guitar riffs in faster tempo than the opening track. It's an interesting instrumental track in relatively upbeat mood. "A New Beginning" (10:10) might be considered as an epic. The music reminds me the kind of Pendragon, IQ or Pallas. It starts mellow with low register vocal notes combined beautifully with Floydian guitar work. The music moves in crescendo with faster tempo at approx minute 2:30. In terms of change dynamics, the band tries to avoid such thing as sudden change because the music is floating with relatively no major breaks into different style. The music explores its peak with symphonic style in he middle of the track using solo synthesizer. The use of alto sax solo has enriched the texture of this song.

"The Battle Of Thalÿma" (5:31) is another floating music with intertwined keyboard and guitar works. It's quite odd to me as the title is about "battle" but the song does not represent a nuance of battle. Or I might be wrong expecting something like Genesis "the Battle of Epping Forest"? Oh yes, I'm wrong as when the music enters minute 3 I can hear the change of style into more symphonic with a bit like marching drums that relate us to the battle nuance. After this instrumental track the music continues with "...And Enter The Game" (9:44) that has vocal parts. The music changes from flat style into more dynamic ones in the middle of the track. The album concludes with an epic "Mesmerizing Enterprize" (15:20) - exploring the multi-layered keyboard sounds and guitar solos.

I think, this is a main characteristic of any neo prog venture: if the floating / ambient styles are not combined with changes in tempo or sudden change of beats in a dynamic way, the music tends to be boring. This is what I feel about this album. In terms of musical flow and melody, this album is quite enjoyable especially with the flux of guitar solo and some keyboard sounds - it makes the music is interesting. But then what if the music is not augmented with sudden change of chords in higher notes? There is not much variations that I can enjoy, emotionally. Unfortunately, music is emotion. You might have great compositions but if they lack melody and / or harmony - they will be passing your ears and not succumbed into your heart / mind. In any case, this is not a bd album at all but this one really fails to stimulate good emotion to me. So I just consider this as good but not essential neo prog album. Keep on proggin' ..!

"Minds are like parachutes - they only function when they are open"

3.5 stars.I was surprised at how heavy this album was,reminding me a little of ARENA.The mellotron is a nice touch,as it appears on all but the two instrumentals."Bleeding In Silence" is a great way to start the record,lots of time changes,and as i mentioned earlier quite heavy with some good riffs and guitar melodies.There is some cool drum and cello interplay(bet you don't hear that often) and a lighter keyboard solo."Little One" is a short guitar instrumental."The Core" is one of my favourites,with wonderful guitar melodies and also a drum,piano melody.The extended guitar solo is great. "Awakening" is another instrumental with guitar and keyboards leading the way."Changed Reality" opens with cello,this song has a GENESIS feel to it, i think it's the sound of the keyboards.Another extended guitar solo is a real treat."Pall Of Illusion" is another favourite of mine.I call this the magic song because for some unknown reason it takes me back to one of the special times in my life,over 20 years ago,obviously way before this record came out.There is a keyboard melody throughout this very intoxicating song."Welcome To Utopia" features tempo changes galore,it opens with a mellotron,synth combination,then the drums come in,followed by two minutes of gently soaring guitar.I haven't mentioned the vocals yet,but they work well with this album although they're average at best.This song also features a too short wave of beautiful mellotron(it's always too short).The highlight of the whole record for me is the last 3 minutes or so of this song where Mr.Cross gives us an emotional,uplifting guitar solo that is hard to put into words.

Bought this on ebay following the seller's review, but if I had the chance to preview this album, it woud've never reached my CD rack.

First of all, the singer voice is absolutely annoying, he strains his vocal cords trying to inject some feeling on the words he says; at first, you wonder what Cross is trying to do with the songs, later you realize that he has no idea for any interesting melody so he stretch the vocals for the lenght of the songs, more or less following the often unnecessarily complex rhythms.

The playing is at least good, with particular mention to keys and guitar work, but the production is at times too over the top and pomp-y, especially when the synths are on in full mode.

If only they had good material they could go instrumental, but this is not the case...

While I was listening "Playgrounds", I imagined a triangle floating in the space. In the center of the triangle, the music of Hansi, Lollo and Tomas floated. In one of the vertices it was GENESIS, in another one, disputing the space was ELP and PINK FLOYD, and in the third was CROSS, all of them sending their signals to the center, trying to pull the musicians to their vertices with that strong force. Some times pulled just one band, sometimes pulled two bands at the same time, approaching the group more towards to the mediatory line between both vertices that threw their only influence. One sure thing is that Hansi, Lollo and Tomas hauled towards to where influences called them, demonstrating, after all, a great musical comradeship.

I just listened to this disc last night. It's a pretty solid modern progressive rock cd. Some parts are maybe a little bit drawn out or boring but when you expand the music like prog does sometimes that happens. The good parts on here are really good which more than make up for some of the material that might be less than super exciting. The thing that I like about this cd is how it takes the general sound of the 70's as a starting point then builds on that influence by adding a very modern take on it with very good production and sound quality. The keyboards are at times very pleasant and often have a little bit of a symphonic quality to them but this is not over the top symphonic prog bombast but instead a slightly more casual approach. I suppose this could be considered symphonic progressive for lack of a better term(how about just prog?)but the guitar seems to be on equal ground with the keyboards instead of taking a back seat to them which is often the case with much symphonic progressive rock. The guitars also have a heavy edge at times but this is not prog metal. At any rate a very good disc. Over all I give this about a 3.75 which I'll round out to a 4 for rating purposes.

This CD from the Swedish band Cross is a compilation with re-mastered songs from their first three CD's and additional remixed and new versions. It contains 11 tracs, recorded between 1987 and 1993. Cross is a musical project by multi-instrumentalist Cross (lead vocals, guitars, synthesizers, sampled drums and percussion), in general it sounds dynamic with strong beats, flowing and fiery guitarwork (a bit similar to David Gilmour) and often bombastic keyboards. The longer tracks feature a nice variety, from up-tempo rock to mellow with soaring keyboards. The vocals have a slight accent and but sound decent. The composition "The fanfare song" seems to me a tribute to the mid-Emerson delivering a fat and bombastic synthesizer sound. A nice album.

www.progwalhalla.com

Is Sweden going to be the number one prog-rock country on this planet? It seems so unbelievable but here we have another prog-rock master called Hansi Cross, plays Guitar and Keyboards both masterful. Only his voice is little weak. But without doubt very good compositions and stunning playing. I don't know how this country (Sweden) with it's 6 or 8 million people produces so much high quality prog-rock albums but here we have another one. Very highly recommended.