Sebas Honing’s music has been presented here before, and every time I recommended you to go check him out. Yet he apparently felt it was time to up his game again. Besides playing guitar, bass and keyboards, he took singing lessons from his partner Petra (also present as vocalist here) and asked Christiaan (“Chris”) Bruin to take care of the drums. And yes, the lessons paid off as I do think he sounds more confident! Just listen to OMG for proof. Additional backing vocals are from Tessa Struijs.
Once again the album is a melting pot of influences, so it still qualifies as progressive rock, even when it hints at metal and pop. And once again it impresses me with especially his guitar playing and the quality of the songs. Beautiful melodies that suck you into the album, light and dark, dynamic, it is all there. So whether it is the addictive almost poppy Life (part 1), the prog metal of Ditching Fear or Mercury Retrograde, this is a damn good album, and probably the best so far.
And since he has decided to form a band and take the whole thing into the live circuit, I presume the result will be that the growth will not stop here. To commemorate that Freia Music have also released his 2012 instrumental album Artificial Memories, available at those concerts. Great album, get it!