THE VOW

"Devil In Disguise" opens with thunder and rain as light keys and reserved vocals join in. It gets fuller around 2 1/2 minutes. Spoken words 4 1/2 minutes in and a spacey atmsophere as the birds start to sing.Yes all is bliss. "Talking Pictures" is a laid back, mid paced tune with vocals. It reminds me a little of EVERON. "Held On To Your Dreams" opens with atmosphere and strummed guitar as reserved vocals join in. Not bad. "The Whole Of Mankind" has a beat with background synths. It calms down when the vocals arive. It does get fuller then we get another calm as contrasts continue. "At The Seaside" opens with atmosphere as a beat and more joins in. Reserved vocals 1 1/2 minutes in. Another relaxing song. "The Girl With No Name" sounds exotic. It's because our female subject is a stripper.The music sounds excellent before 2 1/2 minutes.

"Paradise" has this relaxed sound with vocals and background synths. A beat also eventually joins in. "Trojan Add-On" is the 29 1/2 minute closer. Keys and atmosphere to start as the guitar comes in. It gets more aggressive after 1 1/2 minutes.Vocals come in when the guitar backs off.Tasteful guitar 4 minutes in when the vocals stop. It settles with spoken words before 6 minutes. It then kicks in fairly heavily a minute later but it's brief. Atmosphere before 11 minutes then the vocals return. A change 15 minutes in as synths become prominant. A calm 17 1/2 minutes in. It turns pretty intense 25 minutes in before turning mellow again to end it.

A pretty good album overall but a low 3 stars for me.

Back to business. Indeed wow - I realised that this is a 2-men project only when glanced at the booklet. They sound like a BAND, really, apart from most of 1-2-3-men projects I heard. We have enjoyable Neo-prog (close to IQ, COLLAGE, ARENA and other bands from the 90s wave of Neo) here with melodical and well-written/recorded pieces varying in tempo and mood (from ballads like "Another World" to rock-hits like "Stony Broke"...isn't this one about Stonebeard? ;-) ). Opening epic has a bit boring piano/ vocal-only coda (not even coda but a half of the song!) while the closing one has a bit too long spacy but also boring intro filled with noises (good lyrics here,btw) - I think they both should have been shorter.

Again, nothing special here, but if you're a fan of a genre or a Prog Collector, you need this one. Recommended? OK, recommended, it's a pleasant album