So,
"XXX" is lucky number 15 in
ASIA's discography list, the twelfth studio album and 30 years of work: Double celebration!!!
ASIAis a British Rock group formed in 1982. The band was labeled a super groupas it included former members of several veteran progressive rock bands, namely bassist / vocalist
John Wetton (formerly in
MOGUL THRASH, FAMILY, KINGCRIMSON,
ROXY MUSIC, URIAH HEEP, U.K. and
WISHBONE ASH), guitarist
Steve Howe (formerly, and subsequently in
YES), keyboardist
Geoff Downes (of
YES and
THEBUGGLES) and drummer
Carl Palmer(formerly in
THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN,
ATOMIC ROOSTER and
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER). The band has been through multiple line-up changes in its history, but the current line-up is a reunion of that original line-up. A second band, called
ASIA featuring
John Payne, exists in parallel as a continuation of a pre-2006
ASIA line-up.
So you know, only a super group like
ASIA can have a track called
"No Religion" and afterwards, at the following track to have a track called
"Faithful":Just because of this and after listening more than once to
XXX I realize that this world, the human mind is tricky with multi-faces nature and I believe
XXX is a great example of this. By the way, the name features the Roman numeral
XXX, in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the release of their debut album. The cover artwork was created by
Roger Dean; the flying dragon-fish indicates that 2012 is the Year of The Water Dragon in the Chinese calendar.
John Wetton (Bass/Vocals): Voice of angels with bells, really delightful!!! Such clean vocal abilities and emotional spirit, which mean: reliable and it's very easy as a vocalist to get lost in the instruments lime-light but John have manage to take me to the edge of the sub-genre: progressive rock, and also a fine one!
Geoff Downes (Keyboards): Great techniques, very much like
Jon Lord from
DEEP PURPLE (R.I.P) but still very much original and also extremely diverse and all the progressive rock fans would agree with me that all the above are the foundation of an excellent album.
Steve Howe (Guitar): Absolutely divine!!! Every sound that comes out of
Steve's guitar is heaven-like sound. Such a beautiful décor to a fine album such as
XXX and it really hit me in the final part of the eighth track:
"Judas" and the last track also
"Ghost of a Chance" along with the keyboard gave me goose bumps.
Carl Palmer (Drums): Stationaryyet surprising. You can really hear the originality of
Carl's drumming work in between the parts when
Wetton sings.
So give the
"Ghost of a Chance" to lead you and enjoy
ASIA's
"XXX".