THE VOW: Devil In Disguise

Choice Of The Month July 2005
Cover	Release	Style
	2005	neo prog
	Label
	-
	Website
	www.thevow.de
	Contact
	holger-thevow@gmx.de
	Playing Time	Cat. N°
	69:25	-
	Review by	Rating
	Luc	9/10
nederlands	Review
The Vow has waited until now to release their third album, successor to “Trojan”. Due to the decision to use real drums instead of electronic substitutes a lot of material had to be re-recorded and remixed. I can not know, of course, what it sounded like in its initial form, but I’m very happy with their decision. “Devil in Disguise” is a very mature album that gets very near to the top op neo-prog music. Holger Götz has a very passionate voice and caries the songs without any problem. The title track made me think of Ayreon’s concept albums: the same passion, the same ability to make the listener believe he’s going to experience something very special. The original symphonic music has evolved and found an outlet in neo-prog. Elements of Galleon can be found in The Vow’s music, but especially a comparison with Clepsydra at its best is at its place. Great drumming and guitars, excellent keyboards and a bass that’s clearly present. In “At the Seaside”, a very gentle song, the bass has a very distinctive and wonderful sound and the drums are played pretty much in the way Nick Mason does (or used to do) with Pink Floyd. But the most catchy throughout the album is probably Götz’s voice, drawing all attention to it every time the man starts singing. Do not make the mistake to give your judgement on this album too soon. It is so rich that you really need to listen to it over and over again to get to its deepest essence. The great thing is that there’s no weak song on this album. The songs are rather long, but the balance between the different instruments is so good that they never get boring. On the contrary. The comparison with Ayreon’s work comes up again when listening to “The girl with no Name”. Passionate, almost haunted singing with some ethnic elements, blending into very compulsive guitar and drums. The main difference however is the absence of metal elements, which Ayreon likes to use. In that way I should say that The Vow is easier to listen to. But as a matter of fact all is yet to come in the closing track. Trojan add-on, a kind of sequel to “Trojan”, lasts almost half an hour and could be an album on its own. Pink Floyd elements, but also Marillion and Clepsydra to name but a few, they can all be found in this epic masterpiece. It’s enchanting, dreamy, powerful and I could go on like this for some time. Special quotation for the drummer again: great work! If it takes three years to conceive a product like this, so be it. It’s worth waiting for! The Vow has done this without the help of a record company and the cd can be bought at their website. What are you waiting for?
Musicians
Holger Götz: vocals, keyboards Ralf Link: guitar, bass, keyboards Manfred Wirth: Drums
Tracklist
Devil in Disguise (5’32”) Talking Pictures (6’10”) Hold on to your Dreams (5’00”) The Whole Mankind (5’50”) At the Seaside (8’24”) The Girl with no Name (5’19”) Paradise (4’52”) Trojan add-on (29’38”)


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