Progresiste is a french paper magazine, Gilles, one of the Progresiste people, sent me a scan of the review and Chucky (a good friend in Canada) translated it in english. So, here you can download the original review and read the translated one with a note from Chucky!

"Here’s the translation Jurrie! French is a really flowery, twisted and colorful language and it sometimes lose some of its charm when translated to english. I did my best to keep as close to the writer’s intention as possible. Enjoy!

Chucky, your secretary"

Among the staff of the magazine, apart from some really crappy dish plates that come our way, we have a tendency to get amazed and get awestruck at the material that we come across and that we have to review in our column. What do you want, we are childish this way, but this is how you like us, isn’t it? To make you find out about some gems we get off on and appreciate our discoveries is our mission.

In the staff, we all have our own speciality, but the progressive section is really dear to us all...and this is my territory! Especially the neo-progressive part (The good quality one, that is).

After this quite long introduction, it won’t be much of a surprise to you folks if I tell you that I really dug this Dutch group (Dutchmen playing neo-prog music...How bizarre!). And I was seduced in many ways.

First, the deliciously biting guitars of J. Teeuwen which, when he is not blazing in one of his epic solos, lets himself loose into rock spillovers filled with devilish jubilation. Alike his 6 strings ace friend, the keyboardist that we will call Michiel Kramp here goes on his own with energetic solos and symphonic layers. It is no surprise to find them being so tightly complementing each other since they’ve been friends and fellow musicians ever since their sweet teens...(12 and 13 year old). Along these two leaders, let’s point out the excellent singer Raymond Van Kooten and an inventive drummer who used to play in a fusion group beforehand (and it’s quite obvious listening to his playing!).

They are also not shy at claiming their main influences: Marillion, IQ, Pink Floyd, Saga, Genesis...but also Lukather, Vai and Satriani! The 11 pieces on this album are refering to these influences by the structural elements, general atmosphere and also by the way of playing. This comes particularly true concerning the guitarist. This is pure neo-prog, flavorful, without outstanding originality, I give you that, but still really melodic and I would recommend it to anyone desiring to make the big step at listening to prog-rock material.

So there is this new excellent band coming out of nowhere and, without warning, are already establishing themselves as a group everyone will have to keep a close eye upon.

Download the original french copy here

Reviewed by Jean-Luc Piérard / http://www.progresiste.com