Back with their first album in five years, Swiss band Metamorphosis had another change in line-up. As always, the band is based around multi-instrumentalist Jean-Pierre Schenk who here provides vocals and keyboards, while he is joined again by guitarist Olivier Guenat (who has been involved since the second album), this time also providing bass, plus drummer Alain Widmer who was there for 2016’s ‘The Turning Point’ when for a while they became a full band. I must admit it was only when looking at PA that I realized I had reviewed them previously, 2009’s ‘Dark’, which shows just much of an impression they made on me last time, and here we are in a similar situation.
That they have been influenced by Porcupine Tree and IQ is never in doubt, with possibly some elements of Citizen Cain and the likes of Collage, but this sounds all very much on the surface. There is no real depth to the music so while listening one starts to wonder how much longer there is to go and as soon as it is finished there is no recollection of what has been going on. Due to where this was sat on my lists I have actually played this far more than I normally would for review, yet each time it is like listening to it for the very first time apart from the overarching feeling that it is something I would rather not play again out of choice.
It is not that there is anything inherently bad with it, just that it does not reach the heights one would expect from a band that has released six albums and has been in existence for more than 20 years. I am sure there will be many progheads who will get a great deal from this, I am just not one of them.
