Metamorphosis - After All These Years

Home Artist links Label link

Metamorphosis - After All These Years

Artist:	Metamorphosis
Title:	After All These Years
Label:	Suisa
Length(s):	66 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2003
Month of review:	[08/2003]

Line up

Jean-Pierre Schenk - vocals, backing vocals, keys, drums
Giova Esposito - guitars
Dominique Schlafer - bass
David Grillon - guitar on 2
Milena Zaharieva - flute on 2

Tracks

1)	After All These Years	9.43
2)	New Lords	8.02
3)	Sanctuary	2.14
4)	Didn't We Know	8.12
5)	Eyes On The Clock	7.11
6)	No One's Home	4.32
7)	Another Day	9.51
8)	Not Far From Heaven	5.41
9)	Moonbeams On The Wall	9.54

Summary

Metamorphosis is the realization of a long dream of Schenk's. Apparently this is a project, not a band, even though a second CD is on the way.

The music

After All These Years is a longish track, very gentle a bit progressive, but also somewhat poppy. The melody is mostly made by vocal lines, keys and guitars are mainly used as accompaniment, although there is a nice lingering feel to the guitar in the intro, as well as the instrumental mid section. The style is reminiscent of Tony Carey's solo work.

Like its predecessor New Lords starts gently, until the guitars are brought out in the middle section, later augmented by keys. A bit of a poor man's instrumental section, really. Despite the use of multiple instruments, the sound is rather sparse and a bit harsh. The vocals remain dominant.

Sanctuary is a guitar intermezzo, with supporting synths. Something of the type you'd expect on a Camel album, such as Stationary Traveller, although Esposito's guitar sound at times reminds me of David Gilmour's on eighties Pink Floyd tracks.

Didn't We Know starts off highly standard and flat sounding, an effect caused yet again most clearly by the flat and artificial sounding drums (makes me wonder whether Schenk shouldn't be credited for drum programming, instead of drums). The middle section building on a military drum roll sounds nice, but floats off into a key solo that's hardly satisfying.

Eyes On The Clock has a decent guitar solo, but seems a bit uncollected as a composition.

No One's Home has a somewhat stronger guitar line to support, making the track lean a little less on vocal melody than others.

Another Day returns to the sketchy accompaniment, although the gentle melancholy and the lack of drumming makes the first couple of minutes sound pretty good. As the song breaks through, the guitar may enhance a tad, but the drums and stronger voice take away any intimacy. In the second half a happy piano vocal, including perky solo, quirked up a bit by another nice bit of guitar changes the tone, but save the guitar section a change that's not for the better.

Not Far From Heaven is most noticeable for the instrumental key section towards the end, which is pretty decent.

Moonbeams On The Wall fittingly closes the album: some nice keys and a nice guitar section, flat drumming, and overly dominant and unenticing vocal lines. A good summary.

Conclusion

This is not a bad album, however the combination of Schenk's dominating vocals and mostly uninteresting compositions, don't exactly make for a winner. But for some decent guitar sections, this album is pretty bland.