1. Skin Trade (6:52)
2. Turn The Gun (6:54)
3. From The Cradle (7:25)
4. To The Grave (11:53)
5. The Letter (7:45)
6. The Game (11:39)
7. Too Late (6:46)
8. To Say Goodbye (4:41)
9. Seems Like Yesterday (5:40)
Year: 2005
Label: F2 Music
There are bands that put out a brilliand album full of extraordinary sounds and never get to the top, never achieve huge success they deserve. This does not seem to be fair especially if you regard how many great bands are almost unnoticed and give concerts to small groups of devoted fans.Credo, a group from Great Britain, is definately one of them. They never reached a much wider audience and never did they attract so much of public attention as IQ, Arena or Marillion
„Rhetoric” is the second album released by Credo. The album came out in 2005 and it features nine brilliant compositions which are neo prog rock at its best. There are loads of keyboard lines arranged in an interesting and elegant way, great melodies and a fantastic voice of lead singer Mark Colton adds immensly to an overall impression. Marks’ voice is a reminiscent of Fish’s at his best and it’s a real asset of the album! It’s full of emotions, feelings and passion, there is just something about his voice that will draw you into this music and you will want to listen to the album again and again.And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a delicate and marvelous track as „From the Cradle…” that flowes into '…to the Grave” or it’s „The Game”which is full of vitality and rock energy containing also some marvelous keyboard themes and a gitar solo by Tim Birrel, Credo don’t allow themselves to plays below a certain level and „Rhethoric” could be placed among such albums as „The Visitor” by Arena and „The Masquerade Overture” by Pendragon. This album presents various musical landscapes. With its loads of great keyboard lines, exquisite guitar solos, rock themes, pinch of melancholy and a variety of emotionally-tinged tracks, this album will leave youn enchanted
If you miss early Marillion, if you think you feel this kind of music and you are looking for such sounds in modern prog rock, give this album a try and you won’t be disappointed. I’m impressed by „Rhethoric” from the very start, from the very first listening to it and to my mind it’s one of the most outstanding neo prog rock albums ever made.
10/10
Piotr Michalski
translation: Gosia Michalska
