Mare Crisium

Restless Moon is a solo project by Herman Verhoef, one of the founding members of metal/hard rock band Buxom Prime I reviewed some time ago. Restless Moon officially started in 2004, but it took some years to actually release any material. The demo “Mare Crisium” is the first offering, which more or less has the function of a teaser for the forthcoming double cd album “The Twilight Flower”.

The musical style of Restless Moon is progressive metal/rock with symphonic elements. Cited influences include bands spanning a wide range of musical styles, from early Metallica to Dream Theater to Toto.

The music on display here has a full and rich sound, with the emphasis on melodic guitar leads, but with quite some support by keyboard melodies (without overdoing it though). The song structures have some progressive elements, but don’t wander into the “overly complex” territory, making the songs easily accessible and quite catchy. All songs are quite lengthy (all clocking in at over 6 minutes), but due to frequent tempo changes and instrumental passages they remain interesting until the end. “Clear from Beyond” is a good example of this, starting out calm in the first 4 minutes, but with a massive metal climax at the end. And although it’s not the most aggressive thing you ever heard, the contrast between the beautiful and serene start and the aggressive ending really gives the heavy riffing an extra boost for the listener.

That Herman is an excellent guitar player was already noticeable on the Buxom Prime EP. But it seems this is not his only talent, because he seems equally skilled on the wide range of other instruments (including bass, drums and keyboard) he plays in Restless Moon. Even more impressive is that he is also solely responsible for the mixing and production as well as the artwork. All of which are of professional quality.

If all of this isn’t enough, Herman is also responsible for all the vocals on the demo. He is a capable vocalist with a clear mid-pitched voice, which works excellent with both the calmer and the metal elements of the music.

All in all I was quite impressed with this demo and I guess Herman must be able to find a label to release his album on based on the songs on this demo.