Another of these bands that seem to have existed forever, and despite not receiving much attention in the regular press nor on the mainstream airwaves, continue to record and release new albums. And on this album, there still are three of the four original band members giving acte de presence.
I have to admit I never was a very big fan of Asia. They had a few songs that were decent enough, but in my youth I preferred the harder stuff. Growing older my music horizon has broadened however, and while there still are some subgenres I despise, like death metal, softer and more melodically stuff know finds its way to my player on a regular basis.
And listening to this new record, although not giving me big surprises, has been very agreeable. The album starts with ‘Valkyrie’, a song that immediately hit the bulls-eye. What a vocal harmonious chorus they have produced here ! It’s a rather long song as well, clocking of at around 8 minutes. Immediately after ‘Valkyrie’ comes ‘The Closer I Get To You’, which in my eyes is one of the highlights on this album, such sublime vocals, those keyboards…sheer heaven. Then comes ‘Russian Dolls’, a song that at first seems to be boring, but once it gets going, about two minutes into the song, becomes another masterpiece. The following song is ‘Nyctophobia’, another good song.
I could go on reviewing this album song by song, but won’t do that. Let’s say this is one of the freshest sounding albums from these guys, who still deserve their place in today’s music business, even more then some of those highly hiped new bands, who score one hit, and disappear into the musical swamp some months later, never to be heard of again.