Millenium – Time Vehicle (The Best Of…) (2015)

This double album is a compilation album of the Polish band Millenium, which contains the best tracks of all the albums Millennium has released back in the day. The band started in the year 1999 and released more than 12 albums over the years. Both discs are more than one hour long and most tracks are also longer than 5 minutes. The artwork of the album sleeve is very nicely done. It contains the album covers of their previous albums, circling around an ancient clock. The booklet shows which tracks are from which album. I find this a nice limited edition package!

The keyboardist of the band, Ryszard Kramarski, is the main guy who writes all the music. He’s also responsible for the song lyrics along with lead vocalist Łukasz Gałęziowski (better known as Łukasz Gall). I really had to get used to the voice of Łukasz, but somehow his voice really suits the music. I had to listen to it a couple of times to get a good picture of the album, but I really appreciated the music more and more when I gave it more spins. The overall sound could have been better. The bass sounds a bit too clean for me and the drums too sterile.

Yes, this is music you immediately would categorize in progressive rock, sometimes even neo-prog. Some of the tracks are bit too tame for me, but it’s very nice music to listen to. The songs contain surprising elements here and there or are completely different than you would expect.

The first track Time Vehicle is a brand new track which was especially made for this album. I love the instrumental passage in the track Numbers, which is followed by an guitar solo. The ‘space-like’ sounds also fit the music. The haunting mid-section of the track Road To Infinity is something I really like. The percussion in Demon during the outro gives a very good vibe to the song. The Prose Of Life is very up tempo and a bit different from the rest of the music in my opinion. The guitars during the intro of the track Embryo reminds me of early Steve Hogarth era Marillion. Back To The Childhood carries a positive and lovely vibe. Over & Over has a very tensive intro which I quite like. The saxophone solo really completes the song. Chaos is one of my favourite songs of the album. It’s a powerful instrumental track with surprising passages. There’s an ‘industrial music like’ turn halfway during the track Drunken Angels, which is very unexpected and surprising.

This album is a must have for the fan of course. It is also a great starting point for someone who hasn’t heard their music and wants to discover it. I do hope this ‘Best Of’ album is not going to be their last album and that the band will continue making new music in the near future.

**** Iris Hidding

CD1:

 

1. Time Vehicle (New Track) (9:05)
2. Born In 67 (Album Version) (8:55)
3. .. (Radio Edit ) 7:20
4. We Try Again (Album Version) (8:55)
5. Road To Infinity (Radio Edit) (10:40)
6. Demon (Album Version ) (7:11)
7. Hundreds Of Falling Rivers (Radio Edit) (5:35)
8. In The World Of Fantasy? (Album Version) (12:30)
9. Circles Of Life (Album Version) (7:03)

 

CD2:

 

1. Woman & Man (Rarities From In Search…Session 2014 ) (7:03)
2. The Prose Of Life (Radio Edit) (4:45)
3. Embryo (Radio Edit) (11:57)
4. Light Your Cigar (Radio Edit) (6:09)
5. Back To The Childhood (Album Version) (4:11)
6. Over & Over (Album Version) (5:38)
7. Chaos (Radio Edit) (3:19)
8. Madman (Radio Edit) (6:12)
9. Drunken Angels (Album Version) (6:28)
10. For The Price Of Her Sad Days (Album Version) (6:09)
11. White Crow (Radio Edit) (4:42)
12. Ego (Album Version) (10:35)

 

http://www.millenium.art.pl/

http://www.lynxmusic.pl/

You can read my review on Background Magazine:

http://backgroundmagazine.nl/CDreviews/MilleniumTimeVehicle.html

You can listen to the track ‘Time Vehicle’ here: