I am also surprised by the fact that a follow-up album has already been released, at least digitally, because the CD has been delayed several times. What is it with all those release dates that are not met in terms of physical products such as LP or CD. You would think that most bands in "our" genre could use the income from these products given the unimaginably low remuneration of the well-known streaming services such as Spotify and the likes. Fortunately I got a promo CD from Ron so I could write this review anyway because I prefer to write while I can judge the sound quality of CD. Anyway, this aside.

The new album is called Relations and is not a concept album like Mask but an album with tracks around a theme, relationships in all kinds of forms. Musically Mask was a really good album and due to the cooperation of a number of classy musicians, the music was strongly reminiscent of the first albums of Knight Area. Good news, Gijs Koopman (bass), Rinie Huigen (guitar) and Mark Smit (vocals) also play on Relations and also determine the group's sound. Jens van der valk (guitar) and Jan Grijpstra (drums) are also back so in terms of line-up almost nothing has changed and that's nice.

What does make a considerable difference is the fact that not all compositions on Relations are by Ron himself, but that there is much more input from the others and you can hear that. Will it get better or worse? Neither actually, where the consistency on Mask was a bit bigger, Relations is rather more varied. We get eight songs and there are a few nice long ones, but there is nothing to complain about the length of the tracks anyway. Don't expect smooth keyboard solos or to many finger-licking guitar solos, but solid prog with a lot of bombast and atmosphere. The often heavy keys provide a thick foundation, sorry, couldn't resist it again, and the many guitar parts are full of melody without coming across as too virtuoso. What absolutely must be mentioned is the role of Koopman because what a great player he is, one of the best bass players in our country. Just listen to the last part of Backbone, really impressive. But of course we already knew that from his time at Knight Area when they were still making prog. Mark Smit also proves once again that he is one of the best vocalists in the Netherlands and he even ventures into the French language in Ses Lunettes noires, which he also composed, a fairly straightforward track. The rest is just sung in English and of course he does that fine too.

Both guitarists, Huigen and van der Valk, play fine but sometimes I miss that last bit of finesse and often have the feeling that there is more to get out of the solos but that is nitpicking of course. Alpha starts big and immediately sets the tone and continues where Mask left off, heavy keys and roaring bass pedals provide that bombastic feeling as we know it from IQ, for example. Koopman composed this track and therefore his bass is very prominent and clearly overshadows the guitars. In Beauty of Nature we hear Judith van der Valk on flute and this is a fairly friendly song with an easy to follow melody. The already mentioned Backbone is really a prog cracker with everything you can expect, acoustic guitars but also solid pieces with a lot of power. Actually a good question, how much backbone do you have when it comes to your ideals? If you call a track Intense then you can expect something and that is true because this is quite a spicy song with many heavy parts and quite a drive. Still, always melodic because fortunately The Foundation never crosses the border into metal, there are plenty of those these days. The longest song Rubberband is another example of such a varied track where Masaki Shimakawa's violin gets to play a prominent part, this happens more often just like Judith van der Valk's flute playing. Ron Lammers was the composer and that is the reason this song comes closest to the music on Mask. Closing track Omega is the most beautiful song for me and that is mainly due to that great finale where the guitar goes completely wild and plucks out the last remnant of emotion, the best solo on the album for me.

Lyrically there is again a link to be heard in relation to faith because Lammers and Koopman are both converted, but for those who, like me, want nothing to do with religion, it is not all that bad and you can give your own twist to the fairly universal messages. So no Neil Morse rambling, thank god. (oops)

Ron and the men have once again succeeded in delivering a very nice album that fully lives up to the high expectations after Mask. How well we can handle the genre that I love so much in this small country. If you liked that album then this is a mandatory purchase, if you don't know Mask yet then I would quickly listen and if you can't appreciate it(is that possible?) then I'm afraid that Relations won't change your mind because the style is quite consistent.

As said, the cd release is now set for later this week or next week so I can't say to much about the artwork but it is sure it will be just as spectacular as it was with Mask.

Year list material, without a doubt.

Music 83

Cover 80