After a twelve-year break, Roger Chapman surprises with "Life In The Pond", an album that focuses on diversity both lyrically and musically. Even at the age of 79, "Chappo" is bursting with power and is fully in the juice. He proves that (also) in the eclipsed interview.
eclipsed: There hasn't been a solo album from you since 2009 ("Hide Go Seek"). Did your old family mate Poli Palmer persuade you to go into the studio?
Roger Chapman: It didn't take a lot of input. It just happened. In late 2019, I met Poli at a studio near where I live. I asked if he wanted to hear some new song drafts from me. That worked so well then that we went from there.
eclipsed: Did the Covid hiatus give you time to write songs?
DREAM THEATER
Controlled Chaos
With "Systematic Chaos", the first album by the new label Roadrunner, the New York Prog-King Dream Theater has once again hit the bull's eye. The sterile hardness of "Train Of Thought" has been forgotten, the "Auf Nummer sicher"-Prog of "Octavarium" has been swept away. "Systematic Chaos" finally creates the optimal bridge between aggressive metal sounds and atmospheric-progressive elements. Reason enough for an exclusive conversation with the triumvirate Portnoy/Petrucci/LaBrie in Cologne.
