LYNX

With GALLEON just releasing a new album I thought it would be a good time review some of their earlier albums I haven't got to yet. There is something about this bands sound that really appeals to me. And I just can't point to just one thing either, because I like everything about their music. In the liner notes they thank RUSH "for being an inexhaustible source of inspiration." No wonder I like this Swedish band.

"Untouchable" has rather a dramatic intro before some great vocals and guitar enter the picture. I like the line "She was beautiful like the Eastern Sea". Actually the lyrics are meaningful throughout this album. A calm section 4 minutes in lasts a minute. Powerful, emotional vocals 5 1/2 minutes in. It's interesting how he contrasts his lost love with some terrible tragedies going on in the world. "The Storm" opens with the sounds of a thunderstorm. Acoustic guitar, then vocals, then drums as the song is building slowly. Synths and pounding drums 3 minutes in signal that it is built. Guitar joins in and vocals return. Great sound. Vocal melodies come and go. The song ends as it began, with thunder. "On The North Shore, Pt 2" might be my favourite. I love the guitar melodies as the drums pound crisply. Great vocals.This is so catchy, and check out the drumming 2 minutes in. Synths 4 1/2 minutes in are beautiful. On the back of the cd it shows the third song as being "Eternal Shadows" , but in the liner notes it's "On The North Shore, Pt.2" that is shown as the third track, and it is in fact the latter that is correct. The fourth song then is "Eternal Shadows" it opens with synths as vocals arrive a minute in. Drums and a full sound follow in this really good mid-paced tune. I like the heavy drums as the guitar plays over top.

"Submission" is the 14 minute epic that is divided into 7 parts. It opens with beautiful acoustic guitar and reserved vocals. It explodes 2 1/2 minutes in. A great beat 4 minutes in and the synths are cool. Guitar after 7 1/2 minutes before it turns pastoral like the intro with flute-like sounds. A great 3 minute section follows as it kicks back into gear. It ends calmly. "Wild Ocean" is next. Keys and solid drumming are joined by vocals. It sounds like flute and mellotron. This is so pleasant. The song picks up 5 minutes in as guitar and bass become prominant. More mellotron-like sounds. "News" has a mellow intro as almost spoken vocals come in. It kicks in after a minute as drums, synths and bass lead the way. I love this stuff. The tempo and moods continue to change. A nice heavy sound 6 minutes in followed by a tasteful guitar solo. Nice. "Flying High / Epilogue" features heavy drums, synths and vocals. It picks up 3 minutes in,and the guitar that follows is fantastic. Back to the floating sounds of earlier. It slows down during the "Epilogue" section with synths and vocals that create an other worldly climate to the end.

I will continue to support and promote this band. If your into Symphonic or Neo you should give this band a shot.

I recently did the review of one of the latter albums by Galleon and stated there that I couldn't understand the low appreciation for that album (All European Hero). With this debut by these Swedish neo proggers it's exactly the other way around. I'm amazed by the high ratings this album gets from everyone.

To me it's obvious that the songwriting by the band hasn't matured yet listening to all the songs. Some songs are quite bland and almost weak and the better ones don't reach the high level many of the compositions did later on in their career. Even these better songs (Untouchable, Submission and News) have only a few catchy parts that are truly worth while. The rest of them sound just average to me.

Still, I'm the only one so far giving this album 3 stars, the others all 4 or 5. So that makes me wonder if I approach this band the right way. So far I own 6 of their 8 albums and somehow I manage to like their lower rated and hardly care for their higher acclaimed outputs and that's pretty strange of course. I think I will purchase the missing two albums as well to see where those will lead me. All songs on this debut score somewhere between 3 and 3,75 stars for my taste, so still a good album but no more as far as I'm concerned. Like I said: I will have to give 3 here.

Born in the city of Ljusdal in 1985,Swedish proggers GALLEON started their career as ''Aragon'' under the forces of Micke Värn (guitar,keys), Göran Fors (bass, vocals,keys) and Dan Fors (drums).At the time of the recordings of their first demo back in 1989,they were forced to abandon the name ''Aragon'' and so GALLEON came to life.The band was helped by producer and keyboardist Ulf Pettersson for the creation of their debut,officially released in 1992 and entitled ''Lynx''.

STYLE: Seven years of existence were enough for the band to develop their sound and produce a great debut under the Neo Progressive label.The album is quite long (over 60 minutes+a bonus track for its japanese edition) and,while nothing in here is extraordinary or superb,all tracks are quite memorable with lots of synthesizer flights,remarkable and varied guitar work,nice songwriting and very decent vocals.Symphonic touches are also present through some fantastic keyboard parts and please notice the more than obvious ALEX LIFESON-like guitar work of Micke Värn blended with some NICK BARRET influence.Very pleasant atmosphere overall.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: An equal mix of energetic progressive rock in the style of RUSH with the more symphonic side of PENDRAGON is the thing here.UK neo-proggers IQ and JADIS also come to mind.

PLUS: Excellent song-writing,especially for a debut,very catchy at moments but always maintaining the quality of the progressive rock music.Long tracks,as most of them are over 6 to 7 minutes,but GALLEON manage to keep the listener's attention with the fine musicianship.Good mix of powerful prog with atmospheric synths and the easy way of Neo Progressive.Nothing in this album allows you to believe the band is a trio.

MINUS: As already said,every single track is very good but none of them comes up as a total masterpiece of music.The RUSH influence is a bit disturbing,if Alex Lifeson was really responsible for the guitars.Vocals are decent but not something trully fascinating.Not that ofriginal music.

WILL APPEAL TO: Fans of Neo Progressive rock's classic era (MARILLION, IQ, PENDRAGON),as well as RUSH followers and maybe symphoheads.

CONCLUSION/RATING: Not a historical release by any means,but ''Lynx'' deserves to be listened by more people,for it is a nice album with great music from the first to the last minute.3.5 stars and recommended.

Galleon's debut album ticks all the neo-prog boxes without particularly excelling at anything or bringing many innovative ideas to the table. Göran Fors' vocals aren't brilliant, but are at least able to inject a little drama into proceedings from time to time, but the instrumental delivery is decidedly pedestrian. On top of that, the songs themselves just aren't very memorable or interesting; it sounds at points as though the band were angling for some degree of commercial success, since the music sometimes reminds me of the sort of material IQ and Pendragon were putting out in the late 1980s when they were trying to achieve something approximating a commercial breakthrough (and failing). For utter neo-prog fanatics only.

"Now, hold on, what does the beginning of this track ('Eternal Shadows') remind me of? Ah, yes, got it...'Kids in America' by Kim Wilde. Kim Wilde, the 1980s British icon of pop? Well, yes, there certainly is some resemblance ? the catchy, driving melody, the sharp, almost electronic, drum beat punctuation, the synthetic keyboard accompiment almost shouting 1980s pop production values. OK, 'Kids in America' might have been a good piece of well crafted pop but, hey, it was 'Pop' and here we're listening to something supposed to be Progressive Rock? Surely Kim Wilde's 1980s output and Progressive Rock are two incompatible forms of music?" Such were the thoughts passing through my mind as I listened to this album. And they indicate a problem which so often plagues supposedly 'Neo-Prog' music: 'Lynx' does offer some nice, catchy songs and, yes, the lyrics are generally intelligent and not too cringe-worthy and there is at least one fairly lengthy track which at least nods in the direction of having an 'epic' structure. But how does the music stand up as a piece of Progressive Rock? There is little in the way of harmonic invention, instrumental virtuosity, development of musical themes in anything other than the most rudimentary form...and it sounds so much like a 1980s Pop production. So although the album does not, by any means, deliver an unbearable listening experience, it falls radically short with respect to all the values by which I am usually drawn to Progressive Rock. Nevertheless, I suppose it does posses some qualities ? primarily the 'pleasant' song writing attributes ? which suggest that Galleon might be capable of providing some more notable Progressive Rock in their later albums.