FIRST CHAPTER, SECOND VERSE

This is a strange recording. I really like their two previous studio efforts. The Kansas sound of the early days is of course the main reason for this. It was really impressive to hear how close Zello was from this great US band. What is rather difficult to understand here is that Zello decided to remix almost all of their debut album (released eight years before this one) and deliver a harder but very similar job.

The information from the band is very scarce : their web-site is no big deal in terms of news etc. and no info is to be found to explain their approach. The same and useless short interludes are here for their majority, which could have been avoided. Most of the musicians were present on the first recording (except the drummer who has changed and one keyboardist who has been added, probably to be even closer of the legendary Kansas line-up with Livgren and Walsh).

Most of the numbers are good of course (since their debut was very good actually) but one of the best songs was the fantastic opener "Overture" which is omitted now. Still, we'll have some good violin parts which is Zello TM of course.

"The Children Are Crying" and "Traffic Jam" highlight this brilliantly. "Through the Clouds of Virgin Angels" was not present on the original album. Is is not a brilliant track, I'm afraid. Pure hard-rock, almost heavy. This instrumental number is repetitive and does not add anything to the quality of their debut album. There will be two versions for "Hold On". I admit that the live one is not bad (although the sound could have been better).

This album could have been a good one if it was not a repetition of an earlier recording. Was the original out of print ? Again no information circulates about this one, and I really wonder why this has been released. Three stars.