San Francisco based band Metaphor has been a Genesis tribute group for about two years. They mainly focussed on the "classic era'"Genesis, the influence of which can be heard strongly on the band's debut album Starfooted. Especially Malcolm Smith's guitar sound leans heavily towards the heavenly sound of Hackett, whilst both the keyboard parts from Marc Spooner and the voice of John Mabry let us hear the better elements out of Trespass, Nursery Crime and Foxtrot, even if this album contains ten original compositions. Whilst the Italian band The Nightwatch gets very close to the vocals of Peter Gabriel, Metaphor leans more towards Genesis in the instrumental passages. "Starfooted In A Garden Of Cans" begins in a folky and classical vein both at the same time before it evolves towards being like an unreleased Genesis gem from the seventies by means of some obstinate synth sounds. "In The Cave" opens with that typical mellotron and swelling drums, the kind of pattern we have been able to witness many times with the real Genesis. In fact, if you change one small letter in the title you get "In The Cage!" "Battle Of The Archons" sounds ominous, almost like a cross between Happy the Man (yet another Genesis title) and Gentle Giant. The longer tracks are interspersed by some shorter songs such as "The Illusion Of Flesh", "The Bridal Chamber" and "Assumption," songs which are mainly written around an acoustic framework. The final track "Assumption" even sounds a bit like a gospel and maybe this has something to do with singer John Mabry who in daily life is also a priest. Maybe we have to see him as the successor of Geoff Mann? When Re-Genesis released their albums filled with Genesis cover versions it didn't mean a thing. With Metaphor at least they have delivered some original work although obviously the Genesis reference is deeply rooted in their own compositions. Starfooted certainly is a must for the addictive Genesis fan and much more interesting than Mascaras Urbanas from that other Genesis clone Rael. Well done! Reviewed by : John 'BoBo' Bollenberg |
