VISIONS IN THE DARK

There are a few things that puzzle me with this second release by Deyss. First of all it's the line-up of songs on this album page. It shows that it's the line-up of a vinyl but if that's true it's a vinyl with three sides. THREE ??? Huh ? I'm curious what that looked like. The release year is 1987 so the CD was just arising and it is very likely we're talking about a vinyl as original production system. I myself have the disc and the line-up of songs is different from shown above on this page. Well, only slightly different. So that's all pretty interesting I would say.

Another thing I would like to know is who in fact Jester was. He's the vocalist on this second album, a different one compared to the debut At King. And the reason I would like to know this is that he sounds a lot like Aluisio Maggini, the vocalist of Clepsydra, a band that produced their albums in the nineties mainly. And they are both Swiss bands so it's not impossible they are one and the same person but I haven't found the answer yet.

Whilst I was digging for this information I noticed on other websites that they were actually quite positive about Deyss whereas on our site comments aren't that enthusiastic to say the least. And since it's our duty to inform our readers, there's an interesting task ahead of me now with Vision in the Dark. I will try to inform as good as I can of course.

One of the key factors why the opinions about Deyss vary so much could be the amount of experience you have in neo prog or even in prog in general. I think it makes a big difference whether you're newbie on the scene or if you have heard another 100 neobands before (like me). Because if you're new you could be quite impressed with the band for the music, and then I mean mainly the compositions, aren't bad at all. If you are an experienced listener you might detect some flaws especially in the quality sound and another problem could be you heard music like this many times before and done in a better way. Whichever, always realize this was done in the eighties and sound quality (in general) improved big time last twenty years.

My first encounter with Deyss was their debut At King and on that release the title track was slightly worthwhile to me and the rest hardly or not at all. With that in the back of my mind and the rumours that this second album was supposed to be a lot better I have been checking this one out last few months playing it every now and then. My conclusion is that sound quality has only improved somewhat but the compositions are a lot better. The songs have much more substance and are more energetic and emotional sounding than those on the debut. On the other hand it's especially the long epical title track that impresses most and the other songs are just remotely better than At King, the stream track on our site.

So that should tell the story you might say and it brings me to the convinced conclusion that 3 stars is the only right outcome. It goes way too far to call this album an excellent addition to any prog rock collection but it's a good album nevertheless. Mainly for neo fans that is.