MOONSONGS

4.5 stars. Man this is one incredible release and the sound quality couldn't be better thanks to Bob Drake's remastering. We are introduced to singer Susanne Lewis on this album. I really came close to giving this a 5 star rating but I feel that although it's better than the debut it's not quite as impressive as the follow-up ("In This Life") which I did give that 5 star rating to. Bottom line is that if you haven't checked out any of THINKING PLAGUE's first three albums you really need to because you won't be disappointed, only surprised at how amazing this band was right from day one.

"Warheads" really blew me away with the opening punchy sounds of bass and drums that sound so good. This one has lots of tempo shifts though,in fact you might say it has multiple personalities.This is my favourite track on here. "Etude For Combo" features some kind of percussion or vibes along with drums then the guitar joins in.Great tune. "Collarless Fog That One Day Soon" has some atmosphere as we get this spacey and somewhat haunting soundscape throughout. "Inside Out" is dark and haunting as the vocals join in.

"Moonsongs" is the almost 15 1/2 minute closer. They closed the debut album off with a track of almost the same length. It opens with percussion, drums and banging sounds as the vocals join in. Guitar before 4 minutes then we get some cool vocal arrangements. A calm 5 1/2 minutes in with strange vocal expressions. I like them. Sax around 9 minutes then we get this relentless beat before 11 minutes. A haunting calm with whispered vocals follows.It kicks back in after 12 1/2 minutes with vocals, then we get a guitar solo a minute later before a calm ends it.

Please track down the "Early Plague years" which has their first two studio albums remastered on one disc. A must for Rio / Avant fans.