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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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MEDEA
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Room XVII
2006
Snakebite Records
http://www.medeamusic.nl/
or http://www.casualsilence.nl/medea
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1. Room XVII
2. Farewell?
3. Endless Knot
4. The Maiden Journey
5. My Dual Mind
6. Dance Of The Deals
7. Graveyard Island
8. State Of Suspense
9. Chaos Solution
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A symphonic rock opera, that sounds interesting! Now maybe we are a little spoiled by the likes of Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen, whose top notch productions are unsurpassed, but if you look a little further you may stumble upon Medea, another Dutch project, of Casual Silence keyboardist Henry Meeuws. This "Room XVII" is Medea's second output and tells the story of a schizophrenic man, who is in the present (well, 1912...) secretly listening to a piano student in a forgotten chamber of an old trade center, and it triggers him to slip into his other personality Jeurian, who sailed on the V.O.C. ship the Batavia as a cadet back in 1628. The story mixes facts and fiction with two themes: schizophrenia and an important part of the Dutch history, the V.O.C. That is the Dutch abbreviation for the United East India Company, who established a monopoly on the spice trade with Indonesia. For that they had to keep non-V.O.C. traders out and killing wasn't shunned. They became the biggest company of its kind, trading spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper and other products like tea, silk, porcelain etc.
But, back to the music! Henry is first of all a guitarist, but plays all instruments on this album (guitar, bass, keyboards) except drums (handled by none other than Fon Janssen of Mennen, Project Fear) and violin (Abel Groenewolt of Foam). The music is melodic, symphonic, slightly progressive rock/metal. For his cast he managed to find 11 good Dutch singers and worked with a men's choir on one song. The cover was done by Erwin Munsters.
In the opening song "Room XVII" Maurice Fende (Jesus Christ Superstar) stars as the storyteller and eyewitness Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Nanda Philipse adds some operatic vocals as the Soul, the inner voice. "Farewell?" introduces the clean and fairly high vocals of Casual Silence singer Rob Laarhoven, who plays one of the biggest parts on the album as Jeurian, but the first real goosebump moment comes when V-Male singer Sandra Peeters sets in as Jeurian's wife Lavinia. "Endless Knot" is a fantastic instrumental with a beautiful sounding guitar playing a beautiful line. Sandra adds her (spoken) voice again for a short goodbye to her husband. After some "boat-samples" one of my favorite songs set in, "Maiden Journey". Eric Smits (also Casual Silence), Robbie van Stiphout (Day Six) and Dirk van Helmond (Queen Of Hearts) sing some great, almost canon-like, harmonies as the Cadets on the Batavia and one of my favorite singers of the album gets introduced: Joss Mennen (Mennen) as the Commodore of the ship. Overall the song is a bit heavier and more energetic. Acoustic guitars set in for "My Dual Mind" and together with the voice and vocal lines of another Casual Silence singer, Ernst Le Cocq d'Armandville as the schizophrenic Conrad, this reminds me a LOT of Pain Of Salvation. For the next song you hear some coins rolling and "Dance Of The Deals" is about the trades, with the saleswoman Marjolein Hüsken (Sylver Myst) joining the Commodore and the Cadets (great vocal lines and harmonies again!) and Sandra and Nanda in the background. The mutiny begins in "Graveyard Island" with some samples and a strong guitar lead. Keys takes over, but the song stays heavy. And even better it gets vocally, for the hands down best singer on the album takes his role as the leader of the mutineers, Jeronimus: Edwin Balogh (Ayreon, Tamas)! What an incredible (bluesy) voice!! Great combination with Joss Mennen and Rob Laarhoven here. "State Of Suspence" is about Jeurian going to trial and the jury is played by 65 men of the Lambardi Choir, pretty impressive. I'm also thrilled to hear some more of Sandra Peeters :) The last song "Chaos Solution" is over 10 minutes long and features some beautiful guitar leads by Henry and passionate violin parts by Abel Groenewolt (Foam).
Concept albums always take a bit more time to get into, but it's well worth taking in all the music as well as all the info. There is some awesome songwriting and musicianship here and great vocal performances, although I thought Rob Laarhoven's vocals could use a bit more emotion sometimes. The production is clear, so don't expect something very bombastic. I wouldn't mind hearing this with a much heavier production, but assuming Henry even wants that, it's something to look forward to in future releases, you know, when Medea hits big and Henry gets international fame, glory and money ;) Until then this release is already something to be damn proud of!
submitted by Marlies 06.01.2006
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rating 1 - 5 Morrigans
5 = awesome, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = keep practising, 1 = sell your gear!
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