THEN ALL WAS SILENT

I got this cd by accedent in a wild downloading spree. A lot of prog I hear doesn't impress me. Especially new prog is hard to appriciate for I am a '70 prog fanatic. Then all was Silent is an good example of a release that took me from the very start. The first keyboard progression in The Birth is so atmospheric! It shook me. The lyrics are very confrontating: This was the beginning of a new cencury... Directly thrown into this very serious story.

It's about a boy Kenny raised in an sort of camp with 200 other children of the same age who never saw the outside world. They were born to become soldiers for an indoctrinated country. There program of teaching is total. Only Kenny keeps asking questions refusing to be totally brainwashed by his educaters. Then his first attempt to escape fails and he is tortured to be shure he will never do it again. He had no choise, he was just one of them.. a very touching lyric for it pictures the situation in its essence. He had nowhere to go. Then later he discovers The Secret Room, where he finds a book of pictures of the outside world. Then he plans his final escape and is being followed through the lands. The story ends of hearing him followed by plains trying to bomb him. Whether he survives or not is left for your own imagination.

That's the story in short, let's now talk about the music itself. Metamorphosis sounds (I only have this album) very symphonic with psychelic/space influences. The symphonic parts are well made, sounding professional and recorded with well chosen sounds ond keyboards. Sometimes mellow, sometimes straightforwarded. Some solo's are done, but in way I can actually like them very much although I ain't a big fan of solo's with keyboards. Unless they are rockorgans ore mellotrons that is. On this album also some mellotronsamples where used, nice choice. The guitars seem to be heavely influenced by David Gilmour. Nice and again, very atmospheric. They just got the right notes on the right moments. Not so very hard to play maybe, but timed perfectly and so the progressions on guitar are well performed. Some of the riffs in especially The Escape and Confinement are very powerfull too. Nice interaction between keyboard and guitars overall. The bass and drum lines are just where they need to be in a symphonic record. The sound of Metamorphosis is intense, emotional and sometime peacefull. The song Springtime reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd's Us and Them. Time is taken for the progression of the songs. This in order to make the atmosphere complete.

So in summary: Great story, well put on music. The music really interacts perfectly with the words. All the moods expressed with instruments get backupped by the lyrics and vice versa. Then aside this, the album just realy hits me! It touches my very soul when I listen to it with all my attention. It's something to take time for. So, some may find it a bit overrated, but it's realy my only choice: FIVE STARS!