While Leap Day may be a new name to many, they’ve been active on the Dutch scene for some time.
This is their fourth full-length album and while it’s a sequel to their previous effort, From The Days Of Deucalion: Chapter 1, don’t be put off if you missed that first instalment. This impressive follow-up is a decent album in its own right. The band come across as a more progressive Alan Parsons Project with more than a smattering of early Genesis, thanks partly to Jos Harteveld’s Gabriel-esque vocal style. Granted, after a strong opening the album does sag in the middle thanks to the rambling Gods Of War and Deucalion, but all is forgiven on hearing the penultimate, standout track. In The Shadow Of Death starts and ends like a lost Steve Hackett classic, while in-between sounding a little as if Rick Wakeman had joined Genesis instead of Yes in 1971. Yep, that good. Ancient Times (Reprise) winds things up with a slight return to Chapter 1’s opening track, and it makes for a magnificent climax to the album. In any case, you’ve got to love a band who open a record with the words: ‘All we’ve ever known, all we’ve ever understood/Is nothing but a fart in a windstorm.’ Now that’s poetry.
