BEYOND THE SEVENTH WAVE

After Across The Rubicon expectations ran very high for this new album by Dutch neo-proggers Silhouette. I have to admitt I did like Across The Rubicon. It was a step forwards for Silhouette after two rather bad albums. They invested a lot to accomplish this effort and they delivered. And now we have Beyond The Seventh Wave. There were some changes in the line-up. With a new drummer on board and a new guitar player things should get even better. Daniel van der Weijde on guitars is a revelation indeed. As I understand Gerrit-Jan Bloemink isn't with the band anymore. The bass player who has been there right from the start has left the band (or was kicked from it??) even though he has worked on Beyond the Seventh Wave and therefore is mentioned in the liner notes of the booklet. Erik Laan is the main force behind Silhouette. His keyboards are all over the place and he has done most of the writing. And even though he has done a solid job, I don't like what I hear! Chords keep on coming in the same order, over and over again. I've heard it all before. No surprising hooks, key changes, no challenging chords whatsoever. Just more of the same. This is why so many people don't like neo-prog. And they are right! Good neo-prog bands are really hard to find. I thought maybe Silhouette might become a good one some day, after the promising Across The Rubicon. But they fail me! The vocals are the weakest part of the album. I don't understand that they don't ask good vocalists to work with them. They invite lots of great names (mr Scherpenzeel just to name one) from the world of prog, but they keep on doing the vocals themselves. The best part of the album is the song Escape, which is an instrumental. And I do like the cover art. But over all this album isn't even mediocre and doesn't do anything for me. One and a half star.