THE STORM INSIDE

For those who like IQ, Pendragon, Pallas, I think should try this debut album by Dutch neo progressive act comprising two personnel : Bert Heinen (guitars, vocals, keyboards) and Marien (drums, keyboards). With this limited line-up you might have guessed that this must be a studio-band where the musicians are basically playing multi-instruments and rely themselves on recording technology to take care of their compositions. The music Like Wendy has taken is basically taking the mellow side of neo progressive music - which is actually in most cases many bands have taken this roadmap. In my terms, this is the "Chelsea Monday"-like music which can easily be described as: mellow, melodic, simple, no challenge for the drummer, and keyboard-based (or sometimes using howling guitar or Floydian style or Camel-style). This kind of music tends to create a boring atmosphere for me because sometimes I'm not patient enough to wait "when the music is UP?". It's totally different with early Marillion which combines mellow (Chelsea Monday, Jigsaw, She Chameleon) and hard-drive music (Forgotten Sons, Assassing, He Know You Know).

The music of this debut album is relying much on mellow and melodic compositions using vocal, guitar and keyboards as main contributors of the music. In a nutshell, the music of this album is similar with Marillion's Higarth era - in fact the singing style is similar. All tracks are basically song-orientated with heavy reliance on vocal line while keyboard and guitar give textures to the music. There are songs with changing styles and tempo as usual with typical prog music. While enjoying this album, I associate the music with Camel, Marillion Hogarth era, Cast, and Pendragon. For my personal taste, I enjoy the long guitar solo and some keyboard solo. The opening track "Blue Velvet Skies" (5:58) is symphonic in nature and the music is bit upbeat while majority of the songs in this album are actually mellow. The keyboard at background reminds me to Mike Rutherford's "Smallscreep's Day" album. The keyboard work is enjoyable.

"Another Day" (10:45) starts mellow with dragging vocal line ala Steve Hogarth of Marillion. The keyboard work is catchy. At approximately minute 1:40 the keyboard work at background reminds me to Marillion's "The Space". Guitar fills that follow the song are really good. "Falling Star" (3:17) is a mellow track in the vein of Marillion's "Brave" album. "Birth" (10:38) is a beautiful composition with great guitar work, nice melody, great singing style. The keyboard solo is also stunning and uplifting, especially when the two play intertwiningly in the middle of the track. "Prince X" (5:38) is a mellow track with nice soft guitar work, mixed thinly to the music. It's cool.

"The Storm Inside" (12:41) is a good composition from this album, moving from slow part in the beginning and it moves up with stunning keyboard. The music interlude at approx minute 5 exploring guitar and keyboard is stunning especially when it's combined with church organ sound and guitar fills. "Never Abandon" (6:07) has catchy melody, excellent vocal line backed with catchy piano work. "Shine On Memory" (10:19) concludes the album beautifully with melodic vocal line and nice guitar rhythm section / fills, long sustain keyboard work.

Overall, you might find this album has a little variation in style as most of the passages are basically mellow-melodic, relying heavily on vocal and keyboard sounds. This is the kind of music that creates peacefulness especially when you play it at night while doing meditation. I can assure you would enjoy it. Fans of Camel, Pink Floyd, Pallas, Pendragon, Cast, IQ, Marillion (Hogarth) would be satisfied with this album. Overall rating is 3.5 out of 5. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace onearth and mercy mild - GW

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