VENUS

Everon is kind of a mistery to me. I can´t really tell why (hence the mistery?). Their musicanship is obviously enormous, as it is the talent of their singer/guitarrist/keyboardsman/songwriter Oliver Philips. Acutually this is the kind of guy you can call genius: he is obviously too much an original talent to be ignored, even if you don´t like his work. Still their music did not grab me at first, even after repeated listenings.

Everon takes a lot to sink in, at least for me. Their music is far from what you call neo progressive (although some Marillion influences can be traced here and there). The music is nothing like you should expect from someone influenced by Pink Floyd, Camel or early Genesis (that´s what I call neo prog). In fact it is very original and interesting, although quite accessible. I remember I bought this album because of the much praised reviews in many magazines I saw at the time of its release, but could not like it in the very same way I did not immediatly enjoyed their follow up (the equally praised Fantasma). Sometimes I thought their music was too heavy to be plain prog, but also too proggy to be metal. Yet it was not prog metal in any way. Heavy prog would be a more fitting maybe, but their music is hard to label.

As for the technical aspects of this CD, there is not much to complain. The production done by Philips himself with drummer Moos is top notch. Philips is quite convincing as a singer, although I think some people will have trouble ajusting to his style of vocal delivering. All his songs are very emotional and strong, combining the lush keyboards with bursts of heavy guitars and drumming (but again not in the prog metal vein). Not much noodling here, fortunatly. Those guys can cut it, but they use their obvious great technique to enhance the music as a whole rather than go for ego trips.

It was only recently I found Venus to be a CD of high caliber. After sitting in my shelf for years I decided to give it another chance and I was astonished by its sheer power and melodies. Ok, I agree with most reviewers here in PA: there is no middle ground with Everon, you either hate it or love it. Although it took some time to make up my mind about it, I came to find I love it. Some prog works are hard to understand and enjoy. Everon is surely one of them, but I´m glad I did give them another shot. Looking for something both unique, strong and accessible? Try this one. Four strong stars.