Band:
Jo de Boeck – vocals
Geert Fieuw – guitar, keyboards
Gerry Verstreken – bass, vocals
Michel Lodder – drums
Discography:
Signs (2005)
Castles in the Sand (2008)
Guests:
Info
mastered by Pieter De Wagter
engineered and produced by Geert Fieuw and Beyond the Labyrinth
Released 13/5-2011
Reviewed 30/5-2011
Musically it is atmospheric rock/hardrock with some progressive undertones and very much focused on the melodic side of things. The twelve tracks give a coherent impression of being very linked together in this album. The production is faultless and brings out the songs the way I believe they intended them to be, the melodies in focus and the atmosphere there for us to take in.
The songs are good on this album, I think there is no poor track but the variation is a bit little for it to keep my interest complete for one hour. The thing is that the main letdown of this album, although good, is the fact that it feels too long and that despite having good tracks in the ending part of the album.
Tracks worth a mention is the opening one called The Girl With the X-Ray Eyes which is a really good opener and a good track. Then we can also mention track number three which is called Hidden Agenda which is not only something so many people have, it is also another good track. Then the two tracks at the end are the really good ones as well, unfortunately it is too long way to that end so the effect with the great ending is sort of lost thanks to the long album. I think it would have worked really well if the album had been somewhere around 45 minutes.
Conceive, believe, achieve is something the band state, sounds poetic and creative. There is a good saying when you are a creative person, ”less is more” and that is unfortunately something a lot of people forget about. I can understand that it is difficult to select what to leave out, but for this album, the songs being quite similar it really would not matter that much, it would have worked to remove any three songs and then have this great opportunity to end on this high note that is the final track on this album, then it would have been effective and wonderful. I think that there is no day in the week that I’d rather have a too long album than a too short, rather it is too short because an album feeling too long is a more negative sense than the other way around.
Enough about bands’ inability to chose now, as I have already stated: I think this is a quite good album with really good music but I have still decided to give it a four on the grounds that it feels too long and that is never a good thing. Had they just listened to my favourite expression and cut down a few tracks and kept the ending song I would have given them at least one more point. Sure I can now cut away some tracks in my music player library and make it fifteen minutes shorter but I am reviewing what the band made not what I can make of their album.
My conclusion about what is beyond the labyrinth in this belgian case, is more labyrinth.
HHHHHHH
