This
is the follow up of their 2011 album 'Quarterpast'. Main man behind this band is Epica
member Mark Jansen. The other members are all very experienced and with skills;
Henning Basse, Laura Macri, Jack Driessen, Frank Schiphorst, Rob van der Loo and
Ariën Weesenbeek do their job with success.
I
already found 'Quaterpast' a great album, but this one is even better. More
balanced, refined and with a great sound. The guitar soli of Frank Schiphorst
are very impressive and the keyboard parts of Jack Driessen even sound more
bombastic than on the predecessor. Again Mayan found a perfect balance between
heavier grunting parts and clean more melodic pieces, the clean/grunting
vocal duals sound more mature and logical. For the first time I have a feeling
of that Henning Basse shows what he is capable of, in my opinion he never
sounded better. Besides all the members I already mentioned, there are some
guest appearances by Stream of Passion singer Marcela Bovio and even Floor Jansen
(does she still have some free time left?).
The
lyrics handle about the fact that our privacy is gone and that for a big part
because of the so called 'war on terrorism'; big brother is watching you! If
there is one song that will give you an idea of what to expect on the album, I
advice you to listen to "Redemption". If you like that, you sure like all the
songs. In that particular song there is a gigantic orchestral parts, full speed
death metal pieces and all the other Mayan trademarks.
Again a Dutch masterpiece and like always I'm not chauvinistic, it is just the
way it is.
