Band: Mystery

CD Title: “Beneath the Veil of Winter’s Face”

Band Website:

Label: Unicorn Records

Label Website: www.unicorndigital.com

Release Date: 2007

You know that feeling of finally finishing a long-outstanding project? Well I can just imagine that Michel St-Pere must be feeling pretty good these days. You see besides running a studio and the prog label Unicorn Digital, Michel is also the man behind the Quebec prog band Mystery and now after six years he’s finally released the 4^th Mystery CD entitled Beneath the Veil of Winter’s Face. It’s a release he should be really proud of to I might add.

Mystery consists of Michel St-Pere (guitars, bass, keyboards), Benoit David (vocals), Steve Gagne (drums), and Patrick Bourque (bass). A number of additional musicians have contributed to this project including Spaced Out’s Antoine Fafard. But this is clearly Michel’s baby as he wrote and produced everything here. Musically this is easily categorized as modern melodic symphonic progressive rock. Stylistically and structurally these 10 compositions compare with the music of bands such as Jadis, Pendragon or even Marillion. Or to come at it another way, imagine Styx at their most progressive and add a little bit more. In fact there are moments where David’s vocal style more than hint’s of Dennis DeYoung. The opening melodic strains of “As I Am” (5:41) set the tone with it’s powerful recurring melody line set within huge swells of music that ebbs and flows around the song’s themes. All the pieces are like this to some degree. The lyrics drive the melody, providing plenty of memorable lines, the kind that gets stuck in your head for days. The longer tracks like “Travel to the Night” (8:38) and “The Awakening” (11:12) incorporate a fair-share of musical twists and turns although it’s very smooth avoiding unnecessary complexity. This is true even of the mid-length pieces like “The Third Dream” (6:11) and “Voyage to the Other Side” (6:24). The music flows along at a certain intensity before shifting time and tempo or sometimes it’s a change in arrangement that moves the song in a new direction. As I said Mystery’s style is not overly complex but the music is always changing, revealing new sounds, new textures, new melodies. The music is full, even lush with huge dramatic moments and moody atmospheres.

Beneath the Veil of Winter’s Face clocks in at 62 minutes, and is full of some great music. This is a very polished, mature release and I really like it. It just sounds so good. The time off certainly hasn’t diminished the performances here. It may have taken 6 years, but the wait for Mystery fans is well worth it. Fans of the bands mentioned will have no problem appreciating the music of Mystery. It’s a hit and I can heartily recommend it.