Vision - Till The End Of Time

Tracks:

Surrender To Love
Season To Change
Open Up Your Heart
Look In Your Eyes
From Birth To Eternity
Till The End Of Time
Not Foolin' Me
River Of Love
I Belong To You
Just Take A Walk
Out Of Love
Goodnight

Total playing time: 49:42 m:s

Producer: Eric Lars Mattsson
Label: Lion Music Ltd
Year: 1997

Vision might not be a name you're familiar with. The main man in Vision is guitarist Lars Eric Mattsson. Lars has worked on a variety on projects and also released a series of solo albums. One of these albums was "Lars Eric Mattsson's Vision" which featured Conny Lind (now with Amaze Me). This is a follow up and is a return to the more melodic music that featured on that album. Lars plays all the instruments. The majority of the vocals are handled by Randolph Meyers, but Bjorn Lodin (ex-Baltimore) sings lead vocals on the more rocking material (Season To Change, From Birth To Eternity & Not Foolin' Me).

One of Lar's previous albums was an instrumental (1991's The Exciter) and the biography also mentions Mike Varney, so I was expecting every song to be merely an excuse to launch into a mind numbing solo. Thankfully this isn't the case, although you can tell that the songwriter plays lead guitar.

Starting with a blast of Hammond style organ is always going to predispose me to a favourable reception to an album. Surrender To Love kicks off the album in a style that features a mixture of Deep Purple, Glenn Hughes and Rainbow. In fact all the uptempo rockin' numbers display these influences.

Elsewhere there's a healthy sense of melody to most of the other material. For want of better comparison I'm tempted to use Roxette. It's more to do with the catchiness the songs, although on I Belong To You there's a hint musical similarities.

I'll just mention a couple of other songs. River Of Love is a mixture of sitar and Hammond organ. Just Take A Walk is the Scorpions with a Hammond. 'Just take a walk, fly to the moon' has been buzzing around my head for days and is my favourite track.

So everything is going well, until we reach the last two tracks. The ballad, Out Of Love, is one of the weaker tracks on offer. The album finishes off with 'Goodnight' which is just one huge cliché.

So how do I sum this album up? I enjoy listening to this. Well, to be more accurate, I enjoy listening to this up until the last couple of tracks. It's a pity because a stronger ending would have edged them to a full 8 rating.

Rating: 7/8