Millenium - Back After Years,
Live In Krakow 2009


(CD CD 2010, 64:08/73:42, Lynx Music LM57 CD2-DG)

The tracks:
CD1:
  1- Visit In Hell(5:42)
  2- I Would Like To Say Something(5:23)
  3- Hundreds Of Falling Rivers(5:32)
  4- The Circles Of Life(6:22)
  5- Higher Than Me(5:34)
  6- Light Your Cigar(6:26)
  7- Insomnia(5:36)
  8- Light(6:30)
  9- Drunken Angels(6:43)
10- Eternal Tale/For The Price Of Her Sad Days(3:37)
11- Ultraviolet(3:41)
12- Greasy Mud(2:55)
CD2:
  1- Demon(7:12)
  2- Madman(6:46)
  3- Numbers(7:18)
  4- Back To The Childhood(4:30)
  5- Wishmaker(4:19)
  6- Embryo(9:02)
  7- Road To Infinity(11:57)
  8- Waltz Vocanda(5:54)
  9- The Silent Hill(6:24)
10- My Life Domino(6:34)
11- Back After Years-Intro [Bonus: Studio Mix](3:41)

Millenium Website        samples        Lynx Music


When Polish band Millenium stopped playing live, many people felt they’d left a void. The success of their latest studio album Exist made them realize that they had been too long off stage. The band took some time to rehearse the older songs together with the new material from Exist and recorded a concert in Krakow for a live album and a DVD (see review). It goes without saying, that there’s no need to explain the title Back After Years. What I do have to explain is the contents of this double album, because that’s what a review’s all about.

First let me tell you that the live sound of the band is outstanding and the songs they perform come pretty close to the original album versions. The band starts with a track taken from their official debut album Vocanda (2000). They move further in time by playing tracks from all consecutively released albums. Only the songs taken from my favourite album Interdead appear in random order. The songs from this album certainly belong to the highlights of this live release. In songs as Insomnia, Demon and Light we hear lead singer Lukasz Gall perform the best he can. He sings Light Your Cigar very emotionally just the way he sings on both Moonrise-albums. The song Eternal Tale / For The Price Of Her Sad Days is a nice turning point in the set. Here Millenium plays on acoustic guitar and piano in a very mellow way. The individual musicians get enough room to show that they are very talented. We can hear a fine six-string bass solo from Krzysztof Wyrwa on Insomnia. His playing on the Warr-guitar on Eternal Tale proves that Millenium have some of the best Polish musicians at their disposal. On the long tracks taken from the bands latest release, keyboard player Ryszard Kramarski and guitarist Piotr Plonka get all the room to showcase their talents.

Compared against their DVD this live album doesn’t open with the studio version of Back After Years. However, this song has been added as an extra bonus track on the second disc. For people who want to see how all these songs are played I would like to advice to watch the DVD of the same concert. It’s highly recommended to see this band perform songs from their entire career. Other people, who are only into live albums, will hear a band in great shape influenced by Pink Floyd and several neo-progressive rock bands as Marillion. Watching the many live pictures on the package of this double CD already brings you into the right mood even if you haven’t heard the music at all. Do I have to say more?

**** Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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