| Artist: | Darius |
| Title: | Voices From The Crowd |
| Label: | Zizania ZM197 |
| Length(s): | 60 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1997 |
| Month of review: | 12/1997 |
| 1) | Voices | 6.40 |
| 2) | First Contact | 8.57 |
| 3) | Searching | 6.26 |
| 4) | Alone | 7.43 |
| 5) | Snowflakes | 7.15 |
| 6) | Caught By The Magical Book | 1.34 |
| 7) | The Pharao's Spell | 9.18 |
| 8) | The Seven Signs | 5.33 |
| 9) | One Of Them | 6.28 |
With regards to the other instrument I'm especially satisfied with the rhythm section with nice fluent basswork and driving drumming. It is however true that the guitar is the prominent instrument on this album with the necessary place given to the keyboards for an occasional solo.
After a rather standard beginning we get a nice guitarlick that is supported by the keyboards. The vocal part is slow and a bit uneventful. The style of the band is between Marillionesque progressive and progressive hard rock. The sound however is enriched, in this song at least, with things such as clavecimbel and Inspector Gagdet-like interludes. The track ending is quite nice when elements of the previous tracks are interlaced with this one.
Searching is a balladlike track with nice fluent basswork, but also with emotional eruptions and some heavy guitarwork, so it's not all sweet and soft. Lyrically the song continues into Alone. After a very nice pianic part laced with acoustic guitar and cold wind sounds. The basswork is again very tasteful. After a few minutes however the vocals are replaced by an all-out guitarsolo. Then we get some talk by the girl who was the main person of Searching.
The last track of the first side of this CD is Snowflakes. It is not mentioned on the back of the CD, but this is probably just an error; it is mentioned on the inside. It is a rather up-tempo track, catchy, but doesn't captivate as Alone does, although the instrumental middle section is very good and driving. The instrumental Caught By The Magical Book functions as a transition between these parts.
Lyrically there is a disivion between the first five and the last four tracks. The first are about real life, while the latter are about more mystical subjects. This is also apparent because of the artwork.
The Pharaoh's Spell is a rather typical small progressive epic with all of the previous ingredients, but the music is in a sense less emotional, probably also because of the less involved lyrics. The music is more typically progressive however with many themes and breaks and solo's for everyone (well, okay, just guitar and keyboards). I'm not fond of the vocal parts after this instrumental section however. The slow and low vocal parts at the end however are better and the closing guitar solo is also quite nice. The song continues lyrically into The Seven Signs. The vocal melody of the chorus is quite good although it sounds familiar (Ark?) and it is sung quite well as well. The rest of the track is not so interesting. One Of Them closes the album and opens with a nice guitar melody. The lyrics do not always fit well with the music. The track ends with very well, although rather melodramatically.
One remark about the artwork: the lyrics are hard to read since they do not contrast well with the color of the booklet.