Band:	Casual Silence
Album:	Once In A Blue Moon
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Exit X
02. Facing Reality
03. Foolish Plane
04. Dreampath
05. Dreamweaver
06. Weird Promises
07. Lambrusco Evening
08. Moon
09. Casual Silence

It's time to sit back, stop all the headbanging and enjoy some of the softer sides of Metal music, Casual Silence is here with their latest Prog Rock masterpiece "Once In A Blue Moon". Casual Silence can't be classified in only one category, call it Neo-Prog, Prog Rock, Prog Metal, I don't care, I just care that this album is a hidden jewel in the Prog scene.

One of the great differential advantages that Casual Silence offers is that they count with 3 vocalists in their ranks, alternating between each song, and sometimes singing all together.
The main man, Rob Laarhoven has a really great voice, without sounding too high-pitched he can reach those high notes with ease.

After an small intro, "Facing Reality" warms things up with a tin whistle, giving the song an overall folky sound, the softer parts of the song are very catchy, and the chorus is just ideal, it will stick in your brain for weeks.
"Foolish Plane" begins with a flute and the guitar, once again, the Folky sound is there, the song starts soft and slowly builds up and turns out to be another hit in the album.
"Dreampath" has the mandatory long instrumental part of almost every Prog Metal album, "Dreamweaver" has a soothing atmosphere, the angelic guest vocals of Sandra Peeters makes of this a wonderful ballad.
"Weird Promises" is another fantastic song, great chorus and excellent keyboard use, after 2 more high quality songs, the album closes with the 10 minute epic "Casual Silence", a varied track, full of solos and tempo changes.

Casual Silence offers fantastic vocal delivery, top notch musicianship, and creative songwriting, for me, is a great album, for the rest, maybe a problem is that is not Metal enough for some of the crowd.
If you want a excellent Prog album, get this one, and remember, doesn't have to be Metal to be great.