BEYOND THE BEYOND

Curious album, that´s the best sway to describe Fantasy´s second album. I found it purely by chance and, judging by the band´s name, I thought it would be something in the vein of Yes or Genesis. Not really. They are quite eclectic and interesting, sounding way too modern for the time: Beyond The Beyond doesn´t seem to be coming from 1974 at all. The production is excellent, very clear and balanced.

After repeated listenings Ican´t make up my mind if I really like it or not. It seems the band was on their way for something big, but the songwriting was still underdeveloped somehow. Not bad at all, but still it feels like they were in the right path but had not reached its aim yet. The better exemple of that are probably the longer tracks: Afterthought is very promising and strong, while the much more symphonic Alanderie with its eastern influences shows the band was not really ready for such undertaking. Well, that´s just my opinion. The title track is also very nice.

Of course the musicanship is very good, with all the band members doing their parts very skillfully. I liked the keyboards parts a lot, with some inventive use of mellotron and organ. The guitar solos are also well done. The singer has a nice voice. The bonus tracks show the band in a more heavy prog mode, but again the music is very good even if they were not as well produced as the official ones. (and three of them have a differnet, more aggressive singer).

It is very hard to rate such an album. This is good music alright, but not really symphonic. It makes yu wonder how far this group would have gone if they had the chance to hone their obvious talents. For this one: something between 2,5 and 3 stars.