Kaos Moon - 2024 - The Goldfish

(57:35; Unicorn Digital)

With the debut release in 1994, and the second in 2004, there has been a larger gap than normal to the third but multi-instrumentalist/singer Bernard Ouellette has now returned with new guitarist Eric Bonnette and new bassist Eric Portelance. The result is an album which is both interesting and somewhat confusing in that the vocal melodies are quite commercial and certainly fit well within the crossover progressive rock sub-genre, but the keyboard sounds are quite dated and chunky and often feel they have far more in common with classic RPI. He is also quite content to have passages where the two Eric’s are not playing at all, which is a shame as the bass is remarkably fluid and driving, while the different guitar sounds utilised are interesting and when the guys decide to rock it then certainly do, coming across as a polished Deep Purple or Uriah Heep but with rather more interesting time signatures.

The result is something which is interesting, but is not nearly as compelling as one might think given this band has been around for so long, but there again the last album was Bernard and session musicians and one cannot help but wonder if that is the same this time given he also produced it. One gets the impression there is a good album here to be heard, but it needs to be somewhat expanded and if there had been a wider use of keyboard sounds instead of so much organ that might have done the trick, while if Bonnette had been given the opportunity to take more of a lead role that may also have helped, but for the most part this is quite one-dimensional and not as essential as one may expect.

Kev Rowland, January 2025

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