BEYOND EXPRESSION

For me, I don't feel "Beyond Expression" quite lives up to the greatness of "Glory of the Inner Force". Here, the band went for a less raw and aggressive, more polished production. The opening cut, "A Passion Condensed" is truly a wonderful prog masterpiece, showing the guitar talents of Joop van Nimwegen. I wished Cleem Determeijer still used a Mellotron like he did on their debut, so instead he replaced it with a Solina string synth. He still uses plenty of Hammond organ, of course. I especially like the atmospheric middle part where Determeijer used a Wurlitzer electric piao. "Scars on the Ego" is another great piece, with a bit of a more "heavy metal" approach, especially in the guitar. It's still progressive, though. But it's that last song, "Beyond the Bizarre" that I was really disappointed with. It starts off interesting enough with some spacy string synths, but the second half of the piece really turns to crap with this cheesy classical piano, and cheesy guitar licks. That last song I can barely tolerate. This would be the last album to feature Cleem Determeijer and drummer Beer Klaase. Aside from "Beyond the Bizarre", this is still worth having, but go for "Glory of the Inner Force" first.