DELIVERANCE

I bought this CD because I liked their second album "Encounters". Unfortunately, it failed to fulfill my expectations because I thought that it would be as excellent as Encounters. The music is a blend of neo progressive and progressive metal. Typical neo prog music has a strong melody in its composition. But, it does not really strong here with this album, even though there are some catchy segments I find throughout the album. This is not the best album to start with, I think. You should start with Encounters. This album suits only for collectors who really want to complete all albums from the band.

Seeking Nights (10:50) opens with an ambient keyboard sounds that depict a spacey nuance. The music enters with electric guitar that takes the melody backed with symphonic keyboard sound. The guitar style is typical neo prog music. The vocal line enters the music in a mellow style and it brings the music in symphonic style. There are some changes in musical forms but some of them are not done in smooth ways - I feel like bit disjointed between one segment to another. The voice quality is not that excellent. Some keyboard sound insertion does not fit well with the music - melody-wise.

Golden Cage (4:50) starts with a vocal line accompanied by piano touch with some classical influence. As the music flows, there are some orchestration at the back followed with guitar solo. There are minimum changes in musical forms as almost all stem from the same basic melody with straightforward structure and mundane melody - nothing special in terms of melody and compositions.

Unconsciously (10:00) starts off with an uplifting keyboard work and female voice followed with dynamic drumming and keyboard solo. The vocal enters energetically into the music, followed with keyboard sounds and soft guitar riffs. The guitar solo enters right after the end of first singing verse in symphonic nuance. The music turns into quieter passage with some female and male voices. It turns energetically with a male voice line backed with keyboard sounds. The ending part explores keyboard as main rhythm that accompanies good guitar work.

Safe (4:10) begins with repeated keyboard chords that accompany voice line. The combination of music and vocals do not seem harmonious as they produce confusing melody. Overall, it's a boring track with no catchy melody. It's loosely composed. Basically there is nothing left with me whenever I complete listening to this track. It's just gone like that - no memorable melody or nice piece of musical composition.

Those Defiant Ways (9:15) has a rather complex structure. However, there are many transitions or insertions of keyboard solos that do not seem fit with the structure - it seems everything does not sound naturally. So many changes happen in the music in terms of forms and textures so that I have lost with the tagline melody / composition created for the track. It's so confusing in terms of structures and composition.

Deliverance (10:20) starts with "supposedly" nice piano work. But what follows then is a soundscape that is continued with a vocal line. Unfortunately the combination with vocals do not produce anything that really stands out as a composition. Again, it seems not natural. I think there are fallacies in determining the choice of notes that were used to form this song so that they do not produce any compelling compositions. Even though, there are some catchy piano notes during transitions.

Childhood Dreams (3:50) starts with a nice piano work with classical influence followed with keyboard that brings the vocals into the music. A mellow track performed with no drumming. I hardly find catchy melody in here as well.

A Fairytale Ending (16:45) is the band's epic that concludes the album. It begins with an ambient style in an orchestration fashion for approximately 2 minutes. It continues with a soundscape. Acoustic guitar fills and male transitions. What is then annoying is the unstructured vocals at minute 3 that do not constitute a good composition. What is this really? It does not constitute any good songwriting at all putting this unstructured vocal lines - each voice tends to sing in its own way and when it's all summed up together they don't produce any single harmony. What a waste. Overall, actually I find many catchy melodies throughout this track. But unfortunately, those nice and melodic transitions were not crafted in such a way that are connected smoothly. It seems like a collection of loose nice segments. For example, I see that the ending part of this long track is really melodic especially with its stunning guitar work - but again, it's only part of overall disjointed segments.

Overall, I can only give a two-star rating for this debut album. I might have been too tough. But I have to be honest. It's also probably because I listened to their better album Encounters so that I expected this album on par excellent with the second album. But, don't get me wrong - this is not a bad album at all. It's just something missing - its probably the smooth connection parts or probably the composition itself is fundamentally weak. That's why, I invite any of you who have differing views with me. I will learn your views and give another chance to see this album. FYI, I have owned this album more than two years with many spins that I have made and it's still in this view. Keep on proGGin' .!!!

Yours progressively,

GW