FLOOD

This is neo progressive sophisticated hard rock. There are tons of floating, symphonic, melodic and rythmic keyboards. There is omnipresence of rythmic and melodic piano. The lead vocals are on the high notes: quite good. The electric guitar is absolutely powerful, and the distorted sound is not aggressive. There are also tons of beautiful distortion free patterns (like on RUSH-"Hold Your Fire"), which really give some colour to the ensemble. There many excellent melodic solos. The bass is loud, present, complex and full of bottom. The drums are quite elaborated, with some percussion parts. Globally, the sound is very powerful. I've rarely seen catchy tracks like that! The songs have about the same sound and style, except the last one which is almost New Age with very good saxophone: all of them are very good: they have mellow and faster parts.

OK erase an half star at least,because this is simply "pomp rock" with an AOR feeling, despite of being enriched with fine hard rock and powerful guitar solutions (the best example is represented by "Cavemen", probably the most convincing track, which is closer to the spirit of progressive music, in comparison to all the remaining quite tepid compositions, and in a strong manner too!!)...except on the first mini-suite,consisting of two very short movements, where the melodic lines are good, all the other tracks have no feeling in my opinion. The vocals are a bit forced here, and moreover I can not remember any song refrain;nevertheless the arrangement is good and in the vein of the "eighties Rush" or Saga as well, but in some circumstances only...so at the end it's a decent work after all, cause of the splendid cover picture and the powerful execution as well, and I can also forgive them for the lack of fine melodies!!

Good, but not essential!!

This second Everon's release is the best of their first three in my opinion...

Here we can find the most symphonic face of this fantastic group with beautiful orchestra arrangement in songs like Under Skies... and Black River. But songs like ...Of Blue, Cavemen and In All That Time absolutely rocks!!! After the most recent "Flesh", "Flood" is the most Everon's symphonic work ro date.

Remarkable points: the fantastic production by Eroc, the absolutely beautiful artwork by Gregory Bridges and the good variety of the album... The only thing I really miss in this album is the lack of Oliver's guitar solos. There are only a pair of them through the album... And It's a pity, because is one of the things I like most from Everon.

Best tracks: Under Skies... Of Blue (this is a very good introduction to the album's style... Clearly more orchestral than in "Paradoxes"), In All that Time (melancholic, powerful and with great lyrics), Lame Excuses (commercial, but really catchy) and Cavemen (good keyboards for a song with some neo-prog influences)

Conclusion: this album is ovbiously more personal than "Paradoxes", and it was a good progression for the band... Although the lack of guitar solos, the quality of the songs is higher than the previous release, and so are the keyboards arrangements. The lyrics are also more interesting, but nothing in comparision with their most recent efforts... So although "Flood" lacks the mature and deep sound of the band achieved with "Fantasma" and later albums, I think this album deserves 4 solid stars!

My rating: ****

'Flood', released in 1995, is the successor to Everon's debut 'Paradoxes', and although the sound is very similar to its predecessor, it is pleasing to see a gradual evolution and maturity in the song writing and composition of the material.

Although in 'Paradoxes' and 'Marching Out', the debut album had a couple of longer tracks, the band didn't seem to make the most of them by varying the tempo. On 'Flood', it is clear to see a growing maturity, as during both the 8 minute tracks, 'Under Skies....Of Blue' and 'In All That Time', the time is used to its full potential, to create a broader canvas, and thereby create the two stand-out tracks on the album. With the haunting, atmospheric piano opening of 'Under Skies' with the orchestral backing, and the crescendo of the chorus 'So, here I am, just a man with his empty hands', the albums opens strongly, and is complimented by the very catchy 'In All That Time', where the chorus pleads 'I lay awake at night, wishing you would hold me tight', a line I have accidentally caught myself singing while doing the housework, much to the consternation of others! This for me set out the principle that in general, Everon's stronger tracks have tended to be their longer ones.

Sadly, the rest of the album doesn't have the same consistency of quality, although there is certainly a much greater variety of styles, moods and tempo in 'Flood' which makes it more listenable. This can be born out, both by the bombast of Cavemen at one extreme, and the enigmatic, atmnospheric, saxophone lead title track, which closes the album.

One final point of note is that while Oliver Philipps has a strong voice, his vocal range is limited, and on earlier Everon releases, he sings with quite a strong German lilt, which recedes gradually, with each successive release. Having said this it doesn't bother me personally, neither should it anyone interested in quality Art-Prog in the Enchant/ Saga/ 80's Rush vein.

This second album by Everon picks up where Paradoxes left off. Few things have changed (actually hardly anything has changed!), except that this album has more of a neo prog feeling to it than it's predecessor, and even though they still play that sophisticated music, I find this album less inspired than their debut. I still have a hard time telling songs from one another, except for the excellent first two songs (actually one song divided in two parts), "Under Skies... of Blue", a multi layered keyboard song with an anthemic feel to it, 'Very Own Design', which is reminiscent of the first song on Paradoxes (and also reminiscent of Detroit proggers Tiles), fast-paced, hard rocking and catchy, "Cavemen" and album closer "Flood", a very atmospheric number that virtually takes you under water (complete with submarine sonar noise and aquatic feel) including a surprisingly fitting sax solo courtesy of Clark Kent (not the one from Smallville, or Krypton for that matter).

The musicianship has increased in quality, but I think the songwriting is a little bit less interesting this time around. The songs have good arrangments, but some parts sound a bit too mechanical, a bit static. Oliver Philips gained a bit more confidence on vocals but has yet (at that point) to create catchy vocal melodies such as the ones found on 'Bridge'.

So a good album, by no means bad, but not essential. The best is yet to come.

This is the kind of recordings that really bother me!!!

I consider myself a heart neo-prog fan, I love early Marillion, Satellite, Pendragon, IQ, and Magenta. Neo-Prog is one of my all-times favourite styles due to its emotive nuances, introspective lyrics and fine compositions.

This is my first approach to Everon and possibly it'll be the last one. Honestly, I feel deeply disappointed with this band. Everon has decent musicians; indeed, I consider vocalist is really good. But the main problem isn't in their musicians themselves but in their compositions which are extremely repetitive, lacking innovation, and out from that emotional content that characterizes most Neo-prog bands.

There are some few short good moments, for example the last minutes on ". of Blue" and the beginning of "Cavemen", but soon those moments are assassinated into that dull and arid atmosphere that contaminates the whole album.

The only track that might deserve a listen is "In all that time" which has a little sprinkle of emotional touch but it's not enough to be considered a good track.

So, please AVOID THIS ALBUM and invest your money on really worthwhile music.

Good Progressions!!!

This is actually my first purchase of all Everon releases and it took a while before I decided to buy the others as well. And that's because I'm not a straightforward Everonfan but I do like their music, I think it's more than bearable: it's good/very good. And that goes for all their releases, there are just minor differences between them. The advantage of that is: you know what you get, downside of course is: little surprise so if you like to be startled don't bother with Everon.

Flood is an album that goes in a wave-like motion where the different tracks are concerned. I mean it starts with two tracks that are related (Under skies.. ...of blue) and are actually the highlight to me. Especially the second part is excellent and particularly the last minute. Then follow two moderate tracks which get you somewhat disappointed. Next is the almost epical (for Everon standards) In all that time, another really great effort. Tracks 6 and 7 are a lot less once again before we get to number 8 and 9 to become pleasantly treated again. Last track, the title track, is almost an anti-climax to me. So that is the fluctuation I was talking about. Not really a consistent album you might say but in average somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I will round it down because there's only one minute of excellence to me.

Second release of this great german band - Flood from 1995. Everon playes quite an complicated neo prog much more up beat and with more vein than many others bands from this genre, and most important they have much more diverse music than other neo bands, with nice keys passages and a super voice from Oliver Philips. In all their releases, there are just minor differences between them, so i can't say witch is their best album, all have the same level. So this one is a good but non essential album, 3 stars. The best tracks are the first 2 in 1 pieces Under Skies ... ...of Blue, the longest In All That Time and Caveman. Who enjoy bands like Twin Age, Jadis, Collage, etc and even Enchant will like this band, sometimes they have much more power than many neo prog bands considered big. 3 stars

"Flood" is the second full-length studio album by German progressive rock act Everon. The album was released through SI Music in 1995. It´s the successor to "Paradoxes" from 1993.

Stylistically the the material on the album features elements from both the soft end of neo-progressive rock and progressive AOR/hard rock. The music sometimes reminds me of Rush on the "Hold Your Fire" (1987) album, but without reaching the same high quality of songwriting as the Canadians. Saga is also a valid reference as well as artists like Pallas and Marillion. There´s sometimes a sligthly more heavy rocking edge to the music, but again we´re in the softer end of that spectrum. The material is generally well composed (although a few more memorable hooks wouldn´t have hurt) and it´s certainly well performed by a unit of skilled musicians, but the strongly German accented English language vocals are hard to stomach and drags my rating down quite a bit. It´s not only the thick accent which makes the vocal part of the music hard to listen to though, as Oliver Philipps doesn´t have a particularly interesting voice either.

The album features a clear, detailed, and polished sounding production job, suiting the synth heavy/effect laden guitar dominated compositions well. As a second tier neo-progressive rock album this is a decent effort, but I just can´t see past the flaws of the vocals, and therefore a 3 star (60%) rating ends up being a 2.5 star (50%) rating.

Hard, catchy neo prog reminiscent of '80s Rush. Front man and songwriter Oliver Philipps delivers great German- accent vocals (in English). The music isn't overly complex--somewhere between traditional prog and AOR. The focus is on hard-driven melodies and not technical prowess, although the band members are certainly talented musicians.

With the exception of the last track, "Flood," most of the songs do sound pretty similar to one another. The last song is both haunting and softer, and brings in a saxophone. Had the rest of the album been a bit more varied, this could have been an essential album. Make no mistake, though--the prevalent sound here is excellent. Recommended to neo-prog fans. 4 stars.