Reviews

Mystery is a Canadian prog band whose roots go back to the mid/late 1980's. While they have released a handful of albums over the years, their ouput has been rather sporadic, and Beneath the Veil of Winter's Face is their first CD since 2007. The lone member from the original days of the band is guitarist/keyboard player Michel St-Père, who also happens to be the owner of Unicorn Digital Records. With all of the flurry of activity since he started the label a few years back, it's taken him many years to get this album written, recorded, and released, but it's finally here. If you are familiar with the music of Mystery, you know the band previously played strong symphonic prog rock with touches of AOR, and quite frankly nothing has changed here. New vocalist Benoît David is a real find, as he has a great voice that fits this driving, hook infused music quite well. St-Père's guitar and keyboard work is stellar throughout the album, providing plenty of drama on tracks like "Travel to the Night and "The Third Dream", two adventurous pieces that will easily appeal to fans of Saga or Arena with their catchy hooks, muscular guitar work, and symphonic keys. The epic "The Awakening" is just a great prog rock gem, complete with lots of atmosphere as well as bombast, and features David's most passionate vocal on the CD. Other strong songs are the energetic opener "As I Am", the symphonic "Snowhite", the hard rock muscle of "The Preacher's Fall", and the gorgeous & majestic title track.
www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=5313

This is my first experience hearing Mystery, the brainchild of Unicorn Records founder - Michel St. Pierre, Michel is the band's guitarist and main writer. The music is progressive rock, with some AOR infusions, musically progressive rock is where they are foundationally, with a vocalist that gives them a hint of classic AOR, which to my ears is actually a great combination. One of our writers Eric compared them to Journey and Yes, on a previous cd. Which serves as a fair assessment of Mystery's musical discription. New singer - Benoit David possesses the kind of voice that would fit somewhere between Yes' Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, or even closer to Billy Sherwood on his World Trade output. Musically I guess this band has been described with the Neo Progressive tag, so at times you can hear more subtle symphonic prog, ala Yes, or more heady rock that provided depth and melody ala Pink Floyd. Not a band that is going to dazzle your vivid imagination with lengthy instrumental forays, but following in the tradition of the post 70's Neo movement that created tapered down bombast in favor of layered sound and melodic lyrical themes...
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...Next to blistering passages Mystery pays a lot of attention to detail and to melody. Probably one of the nicest songs on the album has to be the soft "The Sailor And The Mermaid," which is the kind of music every radio station around the globe could play around the clock. I'm convinced that in edited form this song could even enter the charts and be a firm favourite for millions of households. Breathtakingly beautiful and as the hairs in my neck stood up, a guaranteed hit! Unicorn Digital: push this song as a single and bombard your radio stations! Equally fragile in the opening sequence is the album's epic the 11 minute long "The Awakening," which grows as time evolves. The album closes with the powerful "The Preacher's Fall," as if to put a huge exclamation mark behind this album. Apparently the long wait between Destiny? and the new Beneath The Veil Of Winter's Face has been because Michel St-Père has been extremely busy both with his successful label Unicorn Digital and the many bands on his roster, such as Spaced Out and Hamadryad. So working non-stop what Mystery is concerned was out of the question. The wait however has been more than worthwhile as without a shadow of a doubt Beneath The Veil Of Winter's Face has nestled the band amongst the top of the current new wave of progressive artists. Hopefully the success of this album will enable Mystery to spread its wings far wider than the Canadian surface and see them perform live on North American and European soil before too long!
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