Beautiful. Sensitive. Thoughtful. I would add ’powerful’ if it were not such refined. And it’s even more. It’s dramatic. Yes, ‘dramatic’ is the term we use to define ‘the big art’, where everything is determined by the Idea, which everyone understands his own way. And this record of the Limburg based progressive metal band from its cover to the last thrill of string matches this definition. And what else could you expect from fans of King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Radiohead and Bjork? Here it makes sense to analyze it. It may be a real pleasure for a captious ear. Different, a freakish combination of layers, levels, elements, highs and lows… Just like perfume. The ‘head note’ here is a gentle female voice. Aniek Janssen sometimes reminds of Tarja Turunen from Nightwish with high flying and thrilling notes, but most of time it’s full watered, deep, much more emotional singing. Just like the play of semi lights and semi shadows at their lowest overtones, a pure and free voice of aeon woman, similar to only and unrepeatable Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance. Light smell full of air and freshness.

Sandal? Almost thrash drumming and steps of bass guitar, relentless and inevitable as time, bring metal aroma to this mixture. Here is our ‘main note’ – low, heavy, charming as amber, which stays in your mind long after the music is done (the reason of smell is off). The obvious difference of these two ‘notes’ makes some sort of dissonance that comes as another solid part of the aroma. The weakest link here is the guitar work, just because it’s really laid back. Maybe it was the idea; maybe some production issues, but the guitars of Marcel Volleberg and Coert Bouten don’t bring another different ‘note’ to the aroma. They just make the ‘main notes’ sound deeper, somehow brighter, maybe more touching… And at the very top of this cocktail of 5 songs a flute polishes our aroma, making it somewhat aristocratic. Yes, this ‘perfume’ will find its way to the heart of a man or a woman. It will satisfy even the one who usually prefers the smell of leather, denim and machine oil, if he has some taste. PS. Best tracks: “On Sale” and instrumental “Intermezzo”.