Band : X-Ing
Album title : Crossing The Universe
Label : Twilight Records - Thunderblast Records
Distributor : Bertus
Release Date : 04/03/2011
Release : CD

Yet another band I have to admit I’d never heard of before. Yet this already is their third studio album after ‘Awareness’ (2003) and ‘Independence’ (2006).

This is definitely a melodic prog band, but nowhere near to heavy metal.  They do have heavier parts in their songs,  but mostly it’s pretty melodic  As a matter of fact I think they lean more towards the sound of Marillion or Genesis and strangely enough it also brings back memories of Kayak. Besides that ther’s one song on the album ‘Once again’ which, if you didn’t know you were listening to the X-Ing cd, might make you think you were listening to a Faith No More song.

As a matter of fact, although being more melodic, and despite the fact that vocalist Thommy Keller not being a super vocalist, he manages his job quite well.  The album clocks of on 14 songs, with a total playing time of around 64 minutes, so the songs are not needlessly overextended.
Sadly not all songs are of the same quality, so there’s a few highs on this album, as well as a few lows, but overall quality is quite good.  I really appreciated this album, for it’s originality.

85/100

Erik Morren.