REVELATION

"Jack's In The Box" opens with flute as the music slowly opens up, then bang ! Up it pops after a minute with vocals. Uptempo and very 80's sounding. Quite intense actually. I like the slow guitar solo after 6 1/2 minutes. Good tune. "Addiction" opens with the drums standing out before it settles quickly with theatrical vocals. A full sound follows before 2 minutes as the contrasts continue. Very a much a drum / synth / vocal led song. "Jack The Lad" is the surprising one as it's very much a Jazz track. Some flute too.

"Wicked Woman" is heavier with the drums and guitar dominating. Fairly catchy too. Love the guitar starting after 5 minutes right to the end. "Witches & Wizards" is mellow with fragile yet expressive vocals. Reminds me of Fairyville. Not a fan. "Freewheeling" is better especially the guitar early. A calm as reserved vocals arrive. It picks back up reminding me of MARILLION. Silly stuff around 4 1/2 minutes then it's MARILLION-like again. "Say You'll Stay" is a laid back tune with vocals. Fish era MARILLION really comes to mind on this one.

A good album that Neo-Prog fans should enjoy.

The tracks range from 4.33-11.05 minutes. My favourite tracks is the jazzy "Jack the lad", a track that isn't representative for the album, but a real killer. "Witches & wizards", a magical, soulful, beautiful piece that leaves a deep hole in your heart. This track could be a classic in this genre if it became known among symph-rock fans. The next track "Freewheeling", is almost equally good and makes you think of MARILLION's FISH era. Speaking of FISH, the singer is a mix between FISH and Freddy MERCURY, and he sings in a convincing and aggressive way, just like FISH's approach to the vocals.

This album was released in 1995 and I really hope there will be more albums with REVELATION in the future. I wish them all the luck and I hope they get the recognition they deserve so much. If all the tracks on the album had the same high quality as "Jack the lad", "Witches & wizards" and "Freewheeling", I would have rated it as one of the 5 best albums in 1995.