CHAPTERS V & VI

This album finishes the TIME TRAVELLER trilogy; the previous albums are Chapters I & II (2008) and Chapters III & IV (2011). The Finnish project is sovereignly led by Juhani Nisula who has composed the music and who plays bass and keyboards besides his main instrument electric guitar, the real star of the whole show. Gracefully it's not a one-man project though. Mika Lilja does excellent job on drums, and Timo Ristilä adds vintage key instruments on several tracks. With a welcome exception of one vocal song, the music is instrumental.

The music is energetic heavy prog, or power rock, emphasizing on electric guitar. Perhaps the previous albums were simply too muscular for my taste, too fully packed and "heroic" in a heavy manner way, making me miss lighter or spacier nuances. This album clearly leaves me with a better aftertaste. It features a more convincing classic rock spirit in its eight tracks that most of all have enough sonic variety to keep the listener satisfied and happy.

'The First Five Steps' is a good opener balanced between adrenalin-fuelled power and fusiony musicianship (comparable to JUKKA TOLONEN). 'Sunday Morning Walk' is naturally more relaxed piece in which relatively softly played electric guitar sounds very nice. 'The Lord, the Emperor' is THE ultimate, breath-taking heavy prog attack of the album, and Hammond, Oberheim Ob-SX and Mellotron also give it a thick psychedelic flavour.

Chapter VI (the second side if you're having a vinyl) begins with the vocal song 'Diving Deep Down'. Nisula handles the main vocals surprisingly well in this strong and suitably catchy rock song with some Beatlesque psychedelic details (e.g. percussive, India-flavoured moments reminiscent of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'). On 'Following the Light' the going is still very powerful, and Nisula's grand piano joins the groove merrily. 'Space Radiation' gives the exhausted listener a spacey, ambientish oasis but sadly lasts under a minute before 'No Gravity' kicks in. 'Earth Above' returns to the airy and laid-back atmosphere and ends the energetic album in an ideal way.