RITUALS

According to Tommy Eriksson, ''Marigold'' from ''Showing paces'' was also released as a single in 1993 and Ageness received some positive reviews regarding their fresh start.This gave the strength to the band to move on to a second album, which was definitely a more difficult creation.Guitarist Vesa Auvinen moved to the States, where he would live for the next few years, and he only contributed in the new work during his brief summer visits in Finland.As a result, some guitar parts were recorded with guest musicians.Even so, ''Rituals'' became reality in 1995, yet another independent offering by the band.

With ''Rituals'' Ageness tried to move away a bit from their strong GENESIS influences and came up with a happier, more accesible and personal style, which would reflect on the mass of groovy parts, the melodic guitar solos and the AOR-flavored synthesizers of the album.They sounded closer to acts such as FINAL CONFLICT, TIMELOCK or TRISTAN PARK, giving emphasis on pleasant synth lines, powerful singing, edgy guitar solos and leads and more compact song structures with less symphonic flourishes and more straight performances, despite the fact that the tracks were generally longer.Compositionally they remained at a very good level with extremely tight playing, great choruses and memorable themes, having an excellent bassist in the line-up and offering some very powerful and passionate music.However the unexpected twists, the GENESIS-inspired symphonic lines and the more professional executions of ''Showing paces'' are missing from this album.Lots of dramatic textures are absent and the focus in here is on positive, energetic pieces with convincing keyboard and guitar melodies.The second half of the album though comes closer to Ageness' previous attempt with more flexible compositions, featuring acoustic lines, flashy keyboard solos and eventually some well-crafted, dramatic atmospheres.

A bit of a let down compared to Ageness' impressive comeback, but ''Rituals'' is still an album to be appreciated by the whole Neo Prog community and fans of the more accesible side of Progressive Rock due to its solid and memorable material.Recommended.