POWER

This is the most recent release from the American progressive symphonic rock band NORTH STAR, even though it's from 1992. The music is following the same line as their previous releases "Triskelion" (1984) and "Feel The Cold" (1985). NORTH STAR has great musical skills and they are good composers. Among them are the keyboard maestro Kevin Leonard, also known from his solo albums "Escape", "Crystal Influence", "On The Edge" and "Automatrix". I have to say that I like Kevin's solo albums better than NORTH STAR. Kevin's releases are all instrumental and more complex than NORTH STAR. All in all it's a good release after all with a great power. NORTH STAR have plans for a new CD-release in mid-late 2000. Look out for it!

In some ways this album is an improvement over the previous album by North Star, Feel The Cold. The main difference is the addition of guitarist Dave Johnson. He is a much better guitarist than singer/bassist Joe Newman, and this also seems to free Newman to play better bass lines than on the previous album.

There is still a very strong Genesis influence. In face, one song, Other Side Of Same seems to be strongly reminiscent of Watcher Of The Skies (not a bad place to draw inspiration). But the best song on this album is Meltdown by the above mentioned guitarist. This instrumental piece draws favorable comparison to some of Frank Zappa's late period guitar solo works. I think the band knew this, as the percussion and keyboards sound like they were meant to sound like Zappa accompanists.

Another solid album from this band.

North Star is one of the unnoticed symphonic prog bands from USA, even they had 35 years of career and only 5 albums released so far. Formed by Leonard brothers Glenn and Kevin in 1976 together with guitarist Dave Johnson they had over the years same line up. Power is their third album from 1990 but issued two years later is a good example of how sounds this band, I really like this release, no weak moments for sure. Behind the mic is Joe Newnam who done a good job his voice being very much influenced by vocalists as Gabriel or Fish but aswell he has his own tone. Musicaly speaking North Star is very much similar with what Genesis done in my fav period of them Trick of the tail or Wind & wuthering, Banks like keyboards passages, Hackett guitar parts, th eresult is pretty ok even great. I like a lot instrumental arrangements, quite ok with lot to offer, the title track , the two instrumental tracks Opus IV ans specially Meltdown are excellent, great musicianship and good ideas. A fairly unnoticed band and album, while has plenty of good moments, somehow they remains unknown to larger public, like their previous and next albums aswell. 3.5 stars to Power, good album towards great.

Second part of the 80's finds North Star in some sort of a hiatus with the band members focusing on their solo or other projects and Kevin Leonard being the most productive of all, recording no less than three albums at the dawn of the 90's.It was about the same time when Dave Johnson decided to return and retake the guitar duties, setting the spark for the third North Star album.Simply entitled ''Power'', this album was released in 1992 on the band's own label Space Monster Optional Entertainment.Kevin Leonard was responsible for the engineering and production of this work besides his duties as a keyboardist.

With ''Power'' North Star appear to move a bit away from the big symphonic moments of their previous works and offer a more typical Neo Prog style akin to MARILLION, IQ and compatriots ILUVATAR.Of course this does not mean that they left their strong GENESIS inspirations behind.The album features nice electroacoustic changes with atmospheric synthesizers and theatrical, GABRIEL-esque vocals, creating vintage images, while there are still plenty of symphonic hints in the keyboard work.But they just added a more rockin' flavor in the guitar parts, while the synthesizers follow the edgy sound of the 80's British bands.The music remains at a sufficient level as always with decent melodies, sensitive textures, more grandiose deliveries and extended room for instrumental mannerisms with Leonard being mainly the man leading the way with angular solos and flashy offerings, supported by the welcome addition of Dave Johnson and his energetic guitar style.Bass remains among the band's hot spots, very deep and dynamic, but the strong similarities with MARILLION are maybe a bit disturbing on specific tracks.Good thing is that there are no weak moments in ''Power'', the music is always well-arranged and balanced, lacking though one or a couple of killer tracks.

Well-executed Neo Prog by the Americans, who flirt strongly with British-styled Prog.Not an extraordinary work, but definitely one to offer the listener plenty of inspired moments.Recommended.