VISION

On one of the traditional progevenings here in Holland I heard this terrific album for the first time when it was released in february. My instinctive reaction was to get it as soon as possible and so I did. With the next few spins it became obvious that I hadn't been mistaken in my first conviction. I'm proud to announce to you a new masterpiece !

First and longest track of this very long album is immediately one of the very highlights although this album contains a lot of those. Boatman's Vision is an incredible epic and if my gut feeling is right here it will be in my top 10 of all time best songs ever. The reason is simple. This long song contains at least four amazing guitar solos of the highest melodic quality living up to my taste for 100%. Sometimes I can't believe what I'm hearing, it's simply that good. But besides these solos the rest of the epic, like the composition and build up is superb as well. This song is still growing on me and that is only logical because it's very long and complex. 5 stars.

Next song, Craze this Town is much shorter but apart from that of the same quality as previous. Also here tremendous guitar, where do they come from all these solos, I mean from what genius brain ? It's simply too good to be true. 4,75*.

After the short interlude Snapshots we get to a different kind of track called Touch in Time. The vein of this track is different from the first two. Suddenly the style gets much heavier, more emotional, majestic and all in all it sounds very impressive. Also here a great guitar solo at the end. 4,5*.

Much More is the next and it's a well chosen title as we get much more of the previous with this one, again impressive with this time a large contribution by the keyboards. It's fantastic this album keeps reaching this huge level of quality ! 4,75-5*.

Red & Green again shows that Martigan is not a simple band floating on one special feature because once again we are treated with a totally different style, much more quiet this one with instrumental contributions by several instruments amongst which the flute. Long instrumental passages and great variation. 5*.

Last track is the second very long epic and starts with quiet piano, after that organ and vocals followed bij another variegated piece of art. With many instruments doing great jobs, also an interesting atmosphere created here contributes to the extremely high level. What a worthy closer of one of the best albums ever made, I'm convinced. 5*.

The only thing that can go wrong for me with this one is that I'm so much into it right now that I have gone blind for the faults and weaknesses. I'm blown away at this point but who knows how it feels after 100 times listening ? I have no idea but right now is what we are talking about and right now it's 5 stars without any doubt.