UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE MOON

More 2013 releases and now it's time for Janus "Under the Shadow of the Moon". Janus is an English rock band formed in Germany 1970 and they did one high rated record before they disbanded. From 1990 and forward they have done eight records which not seems to have got so much attention. "Under the shadow of the Moon" is Janus' tenth studio record. I look at the picture and it seems to be showing a night scene where a circus is resting. The band consists of Colin Orr(vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards), Rikki Hanson-Orr(vocals, clarinet, keyboards), Thea Hanson-Orr(saxophone), Dean Houston(saxophone), Ben Stafford(keyboards), Rachel Luxon-Robinson and Pam Hodkinson(backing vocals). It's seems it's primarly the first man which is "the band" and the others are guests.

This record gave me some interesting and pleasant times. I hadn't complained if the record just had been the first track "Under the Shadow of the Moon". That is almost "an epic" and is without competition the best song. That track also made me disappointed of the rest. Here you have wonderful melodic prog rock with great guitar and a very competent vocalist in Rikki Hanson-Orr. Different styles is blended here and the track is like a journey. Both soft and hard moments touches you here(8/10). Then comes "Dark dark", a bland and dark, dark track(5/10) and then "How many times" with a nice rock sound and great guitar(6/10). "Promised land" is the album's second best track(8/10) with a beautiful darkness and something Asian is the melody and the track "Save America" is stripped but not so interesting(6/10). "Feeling" then (6/10) and "Maybe I was the fool"(6/10) are okey soft rock songs. "I'm not made of plastic" turns better(7/10) with some passages I really like and "If I'd listened"(6/10) also is quite nice but not so much "to hang in the christmas tree"(Swedish expression).

Over all Janus' "Under the shadow of the moon" was a disappointment, mostly because the first track was so good. Listen to the title track and perhaps number four and skip the rest. Over all the album was Ok but nothing more.