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In the beginning of this year, I ended my
review of Medea’s album “Individual Unique” like this:
“Hearing all this splendid vocals, I urgently need to listen to
Casual Silence, because three of them are from that band. Together
with Henry Meeuws, that can’t go wrong.”
And now the latest album of Casual Silence is playing and I was
right, it didn’t go wrong. It’s difficult to file this music under a
certain style. I would put it under the G from Great. But if you
really want to know, it’s progressive rock with a touch of neo-prog
and a tiny sniff of progmetal.
Casual silence is a band from Holland that was founded in 1993 by 3
vocalists. In 1997, they released a first album “Bad Side Memories”
followed by the mini CD “Shamelessly Dressed” in 1999. They already
performed with The Gathering (NL), Skyclad (UK), Jadis (UK) and Tony
MacAlpine / Virgil Donati / Philip Bynoe (USA). And now there’s
“Once In A Blue Moon”, which was preceded by “Demo 2001” that
contained three songs you can also find on the new album.
The opener “Exit X” is a short overture in which you immediately
recognize the keyboard sound that Henry used on the Medea album.
”Facing reality” starts with a narrator with a voice like Ayreon’s
Dream Sequencer on “Universal Migrator”, telling you what the story
of the album is all about. “This story tells about the difference,
the difference between two worlds, the one you see and the one you
always dream of.” As on the whole album, everything is perfectly in
balance. You can hear everything very clearly. It certainly is a big
advantage if you have three strong vocalists in your ranks. One of
the strong points of this band is that the vocalists sing different
parts at the same time, with different lyrics, some sort of canon. A
great guitar solo follows this vocal escapade, and as I said before,
even during the guitar solo, you can clearly distinguish what the
other instruments are doing, even the subtle piano. There’s never a
sound that takes command, so nothing gets lost and there’s no wall
of sound. This applies not only for this track but for the whole
album. The keyboard solo at the end also deserves to be mentioned.
”Foolish Plane” starts with an acoustic rhythm guitar and a flute
sound on keyboard. Soon some strings come joining in to make it more
symphonic. Rob Laarhoven has a great voice, but it’s strange he
sings much higher than on the Medea album.
”Dreampath” has a long, heavier, progressive, instrumental intro.
Again the vocals are the most important assets for this track and
the canon is back, even an a capella piece.
”Dreamweaver” is a beautiful ballad where another great voice comes
to help. Her name is Sandra Peeters (V-male). This ballad is a vocal
masterpiece. Rob sings the first part, only accompanied by the
piano. When Sandra starts to sing, the rest of the band starts
playing, but again they never get in the way of the vocals.
A Hammond organ opens “Weird Promises”. The softer part contains a
beautiful vocal melody with a great bass riff. The second part is
heavier and more complex with some Dream Theater influences.
The best track, in my opinion, is “Lambrusco Evening”. It begins
with someone searching a frequency on the radio, followed by a short
vocal line. The piano, the bass and some wonderful drumwork form a
great rhythmic piece to introduce a keyboard solo, which itself is
an introduction for the verse and that’s only the first minute. I
leave the rest for you to discover. It’s really worth it.
”Moon” is a ballad with some wonderful strings underneath and a lot
of subtle percussion. Once more, the vocal harmony is perfect.
The last track “Casual Silence” is the longest track of the album,
full of variation, with a lot of solos.
This album is really a masterpiece. Something for everyone. Neo
proggers will like it, but also progrock fans will find what they
want on this CD. An album like this only appears once in a blue
moon. |
