LIVE IN RIO

Interesting live album from Apocalypse. They have at last recruited a decent vocalist and the record shows a giant leap forward in that field. The sound is very much early Marillion, the singer resembling Fish on almost all aspects, inlcuding the use of masks, as you can see by the booklet photos. Unfortunaltly the songwriting is not that strong and the arrangements are a bit repetitive. It´s a pity really because you can see those guys are fine muscians. A little more variety would have work wonders. The songs are too ´straight´ with very little boldness in the arrangements and actually no surprise. They all seem to promise a lot in the beginning, but they never deliver the punch you´d expect from a band of that style and with such skillfully instrumentists.

Still I must say they are in the right direction. The album as a whole is very pleasant. I really hope they´ll write better songs in the near future. Promising, but yet not fullfilled.