LAST TURION

Last Turion originated from the mid-80's German band Outside The West, in which keyboardist Kai Löbbart, bassist Stephan Renecken and drummer Olivier Maximilian Rüsing played together.In 1989 along with singer Martin Garden, guitarist Marc Peter Imann and their sixth hidden member, sound engineer Jörg Wrede they found Last Turion and three years later their debut ''Circle Logic'' came out, both on vinyl and CD editions on Jumbo Records.

This is your typical Neo Prog/AOR/Hard Rock affair along the lines of TRISTAN PARK, MARATHON or CRYSTAL MAZE with the characteristic soound of the time full of shining, edgy guitars and sharp synthesizers.A combination of short and catchy tracks and longer, more developed still pretty easy-going compositions is what ''Circle Logic'' is all about and the music is mostly good though far from authentic, ground-breaking or challenging.Nice guitar riffs, excellent breaks, plenty of flashy solos and huge synthesizer flights guarantee plenty of ''foot tapping'' and the band also featured a fantastic vocalist in Martin Garden, who had a clear, impressive, full-range voice.The long tracks alternate between softer synth/piano-based vocal deliveries and harder, more guitar-oriented passages with bombastic moments, but sound a bit incohesive in an attempt by the group to sound a liitle more proggy.However the shorter pieces are the really nice ones in here with some memorable material included but performed in a very virtuosic way.

A great album for all fans of powerful Neo Prog and a decent addition for anyone looking for some energetic and accesible listening among the more adventurous ones.Recommended.

Last Turion is one of the most obscure neo/prog metal bands coming from Germany and releasing two albums before gone into oblivion and no one heared about them anything, that was happening in the '90's. I had hard times finding this second album of them from 1996 named Seduction overdose issued at Angular/Musea records, but tanks to a friend of mine who let me know this excellent band and album. I was simply knock out by the music offered by Last Turion, this is beyong great, one of the lost treasures in prog music. Combining very eficient and with outstanding ideas neo prog elements with the melodic side of prog metal, the result is pretty solid and damn well played. The musicianship is top notch, tight and with some great parts all over the album, no weak moments here. Maybe the album relies more on vocal department, the voice of Martin Garden is absolutly awesome, what a singer, what range this guy has, what tone of voice, brilliant vocal parts, but aswell the instrumental arrangements are quite nice, iteligent and very well performed. The forte tracks, all but with a plus one, opning track the title track, HUmiliation, Beyond Today - my fav from here, the lyrics on this one are superb and very meanigful, Autumn Scream and Whatever You Might See with great lyrics. Usualy I don't pay very much attention to lyrics, depends of the album, but on this one I was amazed by the so pertinent and great words this album has. All in all this is brilliant album, very unnoticed and unknown, 4 stars easy and warmly recommended one of the biggest surprises I had in last years. Very good cover art aswell.

Back when I used to write for Exposé, I was forced to listen to and then review some of the most appalling dreck imaginable. This was the scum at the bottom of the barrel.

Mate inept, plodding musicianship to songwriting that strings together every neo-prog cliché in the book. Add a ludicrously flailing, spastic lead vocalist and you've pretty much hit on Last Turion's recipe for disaster. Neo-prog doesn't get much worse.