This is the first time that I am greatly disappointed in a release by Tom Galley’s Phenomena project. You see all the previous albums were not only remarkable but I dare to say brilliant and outstanding. This time though, the inspiration is absent from the newest offering by Galley called “Awakening” despite the fact that there are some very distinguished guests on the album like οι Terry Brock, Ralf Scheepers, Toby Hitchcock, James Christian, Mike DiMeo etc. Apart from the rather indifferent compositions, “Awakening” displays an aura of melodic rock sound of Swedish origin that could be beneficial to some other group but it definitely doesn’t work for Phenomena. It is more than certain that the presence of Martin Cronlund played a significant role but he didn’t bring along the much desired results.

Last but certainly not least the whole atmosphere of the album has absolutely nothing in common with the past Phenomena releases and I must say that “Awakening” sounds rather weak.
 
Highlight: It is rumored that for the next Phenomena release, Wilfried Rimensberger would be among the participants…let’s see…