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Vytas Lemke: Keyboards
Frank Fischer: Bass
Philip Griffiths: Lead Singer
Ludwig Benedek: Drums
Matthias Richter: Guitars
Guest Musicians:
Bernd Schreiber: Contrabass on [9]
Christian Schimanski: Acoustic guitars, background vocals & Spanish
guitars on [3]
Werner Stephan: Background vocals
Timo
Wagner: Saxophone on [1+2]
Artwork by
Mattias Norén (www.progart.com)
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It’s incredible how this German band is integrating so many
different styles into their music. Almost every song is totally
different and still they all form a unity called “A Different Point
Of You”. The way they perform all these styles is the best proof of
their musical skills. The singer Philip Griffiths was already one of
my favourite singers. I know him from the Poor Genetic Material
albums, but he’s even sounding better with this sort of music. His
voice resembles a lot to Michael Sadler’s from Saga but he sings
with more emotion.
“A Clown’s Tale” starts off with an Eastern sounding sort of sax
solo that pops up from time to time during the track. The other
instruments give the same Eastern feeling and you can even hear it
in the vocals. Amongst these foreign sounds, Matthias succeeds to
put down a really great progmetal guitar solo at the end of the
track.
”Fake The Right” is a very rhythmic rock song with lots of sax.
Musette accordion in French and Malando style are used in ”Your
Other Way”, but again without losing the Alias Eye sound. So don’t
let it scare you off, it still contains enough rock elements to keep
it from being a real “chanson”.
Time to admire Philip’s voice again in the semi-ballad “Icarus
Unworded”.
”The Usual Routine” is a very groovy track that brings a bit of
Donald Fagan in your house and also contains a bluesy guitar solo
and a jazzy piano piece.
A cello sound supports Philip in a ballad called ”Drifting”.
Didgeridoo sounds open the next track, “On The Fringe”, which could
have come straight from a Saga album. Classical piano and cello form
the middle part of this song.
My favourite track is the most, genuine progressive song of the
album, called “The Great Open”, with a great guitar solo.
The album ends in a jazz club with brushes on the drums, contrabass,
and a jazzy piano and guitar.
This album is hard to review and to explain all the different things
that happen. There are so many different pieces and variations that
you really need to listen to it. You can hear some samples on their
site, maybe they can help you understand what I mean.
I like this CD because of the variation in styles, but this could
also be a disadvantage. Some people might think that they didn’t
find their identity yet, but I can hear their own sound through all
this different styles. Maybe it’s a bit too poppy sometimes, but
there’s enough progressive material on this album to give it a
chance. The album comes with beautiful artwork from Mattias Norén.
Another winner from DVS Records. |
