Overlooked German band with great love for 70’s progressive rock, led by (professional chemist) Arne Schaefer, also leader of the side-project Apogee. They were formed at the dawn of the 90’s by Schaefer and drummer Stefan Maywald, who were members of the new wave band ”Vague Venture”. Keyboardist Ekkehard Nahm saw Scahefer playing at a solo concert and meant to be the third member of the band’s early years. The Frankfurt-based trio recorded their debut in 1994 with Schaefer playing basses, guitars and handling the vocals.
As Schaefer is a devoted fan of Peter Hammill, plenty of the material is song-based without lacking in instrumental intensity. Actually most of the tracks have a good balance between song-based stuff and instrumental passages. The music is not complex overall. ”Versus X” is based on grandiose pianos, obscure synths and strong guitar riffing and melodies with a somewhat symphonic touch at times, while Schaefer delivers a few sensitive solos as well in a style adapted by the Neo Prog bands. However, Versus X are a progressive rock band who respect themselves, so some nice interplays are also scheduled with Nahm’s beautiful piano battling Schaefer’s guitars from time to time, offering the most interesting moments of the album (especially on the all instrumental self-titled track).
Unfortunately one reason for their easily recognizable sound is Schaefer’s vocals. This section seems to be a painful issue for the band throughout their career.Schaefer tries to be dramatic and expressive, but the heavy German accent doesn’t help at all. That is a pity, as the vocal lines and harmonies are quite interesting, but Schaefer is not the right person to support them.
Tracklist:
01. Point Of View
02. Just One Way
03. Who Can Tell
04. Sacred War
05. Versus X
06. Inside The Well
07. To Go Free
08. Humans Not Involved (Bonus track)
Total time: 01:00:47
EAC extraction logfile from 4. February 2012, 14:47
versus X / versus X – remastered
Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560A Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:Program FilesExact Audio CopyFlacflac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T “Date=%year%” -T “Genre=%genre%” %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 10:57.35 | 0 | 49309
2 | 10:57.35 | 8:31.73 | 49310 | 87707
3 | 19:29.33 | 4:49.01 | 87708 | 109383
4 | 24:18.34 | 5:26.20 | 109384 | 133853
5 | 29:44.54 | 8:10.61 | 133854 | 170664
6 | 37:55.40 | 7:02.12 | 170665 | 202326
7 | 44:57.52 | 10:12.55 | 202327 | 248281
8 | 55:10.32 | 5:36.53 | 248282 | 273534
Track 1
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X1. Point of View.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 97C87D7E
Copy CRC 97C87D7E
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [C0F8A315] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X2. Just one Way.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 3.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4982E562
Copy CRC 4982E562
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E1C456FE] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X3. Who can tell.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 3.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 457793DD
Copy CRC 457793DD
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [5A5311C5] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X4. Sacred War.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 11C41690
Copy CRC 11C41690
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [ED4AC97C] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X5. versus X.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8906B823
Copy CRC 8906B823
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [28635AD9] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X6. Inside the Well.wav
Peak level 86.9 %
Extraction speed 5.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 92046D27
Copy CRC 92046D27
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [47ACAC12] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X7. To go Free.wav
Peak level 97.7 %
Extraction speed 5.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CB7D82CD
Copy CRC CB7D82CD
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [CB99E2B6] (AR v1)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename D:VeushkaVersus X – Versus X8. Humans not involved.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E2CD17A7
Copy CRC E2CD17A7
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [359A31C0] (AR v1)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum 902A76FC103F611903E532129ECBA4C4FE43628DE2F1E2BDF1B65C325C6BB37A ====
[CTDB TOCID: jX8W6BYy41ValdluM8HtMGFpxJg-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
2 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
3 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
4 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
5 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
6 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
7 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
8 | (3/3) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 001374b9-007f8425-760e3f08] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [c0f8a315|e11c7381] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
02 [e1c456fe|db9b4ac9] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
03 [5a5311c5|f7686f75] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
04 [ed4ac97c|0fc63f3b] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
05 [28635ad9|2613d387] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
06 [47acac12|07442155] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
07 [cb99e2b6|736ca66c] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
08 [359a31c0|d91145bf] (1+1/2) Accurately ripped
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 100,0 [4B35BD6C] [184CA62D]
01 100,0 [97C87D7E] [778F97AC] CRC32
02 100,0 [4982E562] [84D72855] CRC32
03 100,0 [457793DD] [E9B5C864] CRC32
04 100,0 [11C41690] [8DBCEFB5] CRC32
05 100,0 [8906B823] [1322F257] CRC32
06 86,9 [92046D27] [9FD3B59A] CRC32
07 97,7 [CB7D82CD] [1F49FB54] CRC32
08 100,0 [E2CD17A7] [4AB49CFA] CRC32
Thanks to veushka
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