POWER AND THE PASSION

I personally enjoy this album much because it perfectly blends the sound of 70's classic rock music in the vein of Uriah Heep (especially the organ sound - reminiscent of Ken Hensley's style) and space psychedelic music. Throughout the album, I can smell bits of Uriah Heep's "Gypsy" organ style or "Love Machine". There are some passages that are too long and actually can be shortened because it's repetitious in nature. But, it's probably the nature of psychedelic music, I think. My prog mate put it simply: "It's get repeated until you get drunk! That's the true psychedelic music man ..!!!". Is it? Well, I don't know.. Because I do not drink (it's not healthy, you know .) so I cannot relate with his term. That's probably why I get bored, sometimes, with repetition. Overall, I really enjoy this album in its entirety.

Introduction - As the name implies, it opens the album with much of organ based music. It's kind like telling the listeners: "Hey, this is the kind of music that we're gonna play for you. Enjoy, relax, and take a deep breath before we start a journey with our music..". If this is the case, it serves the purpose really well as this short piece provides a musical nuance of the whole album and sets the right atmosphere for its listeners to enjoy the music.

Journey Into 1358 - It starts off with a very (yeah . "very" .. I mean it man!) melodic vocal line. I have to admit that this melodic opening is really KILLING me. It's backed with a nice piano work. The addition of guitar fills give a bluesy nuance of the song and enrich the composition. When it reaches a nice lyrical passage "Success has come to remind me. Where do I go from here?" it is then followed with a guitar fills that remind me to a cowboy kind of music. It brings the music into a faster tempo with sort of uplifting emotion. The combination of organ, bass line, lead guitar and drum is really good. Very nice composition.

Love Over Six Centuries - It's relatively long duration song (10:05) which starts with a mellow and bluesy guitar work and - again - melodic vocal line. It flows nicely until the bass line brings the music in crescendo, augmented with a very nice and catchy organ sound. Oh man .. I love this piece. Yeah .. if you wanna get drunk, this is the part for you! Yeah man . I really enjoy this part even though I do not drink. This passage is long enough to give the organ demonstrates the Heep's sound in a mellow way with some narration. This song ending up with a faster tempo music with stunning electric guitar solo augmented with organ sound.

Mutiny - Another relatively long track (9:07) starts with a melodic and mellow vocal line in a distanced voice style, backed with a soft piano and organ work. The guitar fills gradually enter the music and firmly brings the music into an upbeat tempo with grandiose organ sound. It is then followed with a simple guitar work backed with a floating organ sound. The music turns gradually into a faster tempo demonstrating keyboard as solo with some guitar rhythm and excellent drumming. The bass line is an interesting part to observe as well.

Imprisonment - Having enjoyed two long tracks, the band offers this song with this three-minute track. It starts with an ambient soundscape followed with thematic voice line in a distanced style. The guitar fills and keyboard addition provide the 70s nuance music. It's another melodic part. The keyboard at the background gives an excellent nuance of this short track. This drum-less song flows seamlessly to next track.

Daylight - It's a logical continuation from the previous track "Imprisonment" in a faster tempo with drumming addition. The mood is uplifting with some nice combination of excellent guitar, organ and bass line. Guitar and organ play in alternates. Excellent!

Thoughts Of Home - It's a short track with a clavinet-based music plus vocal. This seems like an opening for the next rocking track.

The Zany Magician - It starts off with a simple guitar riffs as a seamless continuation from previous mellow track. Performed in an upbeat mood, this track brings the album with some flavor of hard rock music but still in the corridor of Eloy's music. The vocal line is performed in a distanced style.

Back Into The Present - In terms of structure and melody, this song is very similar (80%, I guess) with Uriah Heep's "Love Machine" song from the "Look At Yourself" album. It's very clear that this band is heavily influenced by Uriah Heep. Plagiarism? Well, I do not know, I guess not really. But have a listen of this track and compare it to Love Machine, you may find the basic similarity in style.

The Bells Of Notre-Dame - It's a very dark song exploring the sound of organ, performed in a very slow tempo with some bluesy guitar fills. The overall music texture is floating with some additions of mellotron sound. Overall, this song is thematic. My CD is a digital remaster printed in 2000 and it has one bonus track that contains this last song in 1999 remix (previously unreleased). This remix edition is better (in my personal taste) as it has better sound (of course man; it's recorded in later technology!).

It's not a masterpiece prog album, hewever, this is an excellent addition to any prog collection. Recommended! - Keep on proggin' !

Yours progressively,

GW - Indonesia.