THEN ALL WAS SILENT

Among Jean-Pierre Schenk's ambitions was to create a concept album and steadily remove the sound of Metamorphosis from any 70's-related influences.He would make true the first one with the next album of the band ''Then all was silent'', writing a story connected with cloning and war, refering to goverments creating human war machines with no feelings, except one, Kenny.The album was recorded between December 2003 and July 2004 with Giova Esposito on guitars and producer David Grillon helping out with some additional electric textures.Olivier Guenat (solo guitar) and Milena Zaharieva (flute) appear also in one track.This came out in 2005 again on Galileo Records.

The attempt to make Metamorphosis sound more original was partly succesful for Jean-Pierre Schenk, truth is the Genesis-inspired keyboard leaks were somewhat reduced, although some grandiose, orchestral backgrounds come definitely out of the British legends' repertoire, on the other hand the PINK FLOYD influence had become the band's driving force, albeit in a much more modern fashion.I find Schenk's vocals less efficient than in the past, he reminds me of a more irritating version of LIKE WENDY's Bert Heinen, a band with which Metamorphosis has many similarities.The album is based on long, atmospheric, instrumental textures with some slight spacious and symphonic soundscapes, covering nicely the sci-fi concept, still ''Then all was silent'' lacks some of the killer melodies and monster arrangements of the previous work.Slow tempos, FLOYD-ian synth explorations, nice guitar work by Esposito and Grillon and acoustic textures all the way with the story unfolding throughout, but the dynamics are limited to the power of the concept with Schenk avoiding to pass it into the album's sound.According to his words, this work was downright pessimistic about the future of humans, so he managed to deliver highly emotional music with the focus on atmospheric instrumentals and lyrics.

Very good album for the purpose it serves.Not as good as the excellent ''Nobody cares'', still a nice pearl of FLOYD-ian Neo Prog.Would it sound a bit more energetic (like on the beautiful ''Beyond the wall''), it would be a trully excellent release.Warmly recommended.