In 2021, Dutch band Leap Day surprised the prog scene with their excellent album Treehouse, which earned a leading position in my personal top 10 for the year. Surpassing a career highlight is no small feat, yet with their sixth full‑length studio album, When Gravity Wins, the band from the north of the Netherlands, makes a more than respectable attempt to rival its illustrious predecessor.
They do so with a new vocalist, Hans Kuypers having made way for Roelof Beeftink, but the rest of the line-up remains unchanged. The album was written by Gert van Engelenburg and Derk Evert Waalkens, with the latter also handling production as well as recording and mixing at his Wallplug Studio. When Gravity Wins also features a first for the band: a classic epic track of over twenty minutes duration, Pride Before The Fall. The album features six new tracks, 66 minutes of music, and Melody with a capital “M” is back.
Opening track VOID (Voices Over Infinite Disputes) hits the spot immediately, with new singer Roelof Beeftink making his mark with his rock vocals, occasionally pushing his voice to its limits. A Supertramp organ and searing guitar give way to a melodic, softer interlude with vocoder and mellotron, before its opening rock energy returns, this time with metal influences and even some grunts.
Viral Cage is delightful instrumental prog, with Eddie Mulder’s guitar and the melodic keyboards of Gert van Engelenburg and Derk Evert Waalkens playing leading roles. The intro has an unnecessary “health and safety warning” referencing the Covid era, but once the music begins, everything clicks. Tempo and mood shifts, a perfect balance between keys and guitar, a tight rhythm section, and a near perfect ending featuring one of Mulder’s most emotionally charged solos make this a highlight of the album.
After Treehouse‘s majestic Autumn, it’s now time for another season. Winter opens with a moody piano and Beeftink’s clear, intimate vocals; his voice shines shines far more in this melancholic ballad. The emotional lyrics evoke images of broken love (or even death). Harry Scholing’s fretless bass plays a prominent role, and Waalkens’ unexpected trumpet adds a delicate, goosebump inducing touch.
Winter flows seamlessly into Falling Star via a sound fragment of an airplane flying overhead. This swinging rocker features a catchy chorus, with Mulder’s (slide) guitar encircling the vocals and keyboards. Beeftink occasionally overreaches, making the vocals slightly less convincing than elsewhere, but the nearly thirteen‑minute track still delivers the melodic richness and shifting moods so characteristic of Leap Day’s neo‑prog. The dragging, highly symphonic second section is particularly enjoyable. A broken relationship relationship s the lyrical theme.
Wrinkles seems like two separate songs, as the poppy chorus has a completely different tone than the proggy verse. The lyrics explore a man’s troubled relationship with his elderly father. The acoustic guitar coda, followed by Mulder’s emotional electric solo, is extraordinarily beautiful and amongst the absolute highlights of the album.
Pride Before The Fall is the magnum opus on When Gravity Wins. At over 22 minutes, it aims to create an epic song in the vein of Supper’s Ready or Close To The Edge, though personally it evokes Pirates by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, especially with its tale of a captain sailing the oceans for his beloved queen, searching for the one treasure that will please her. The tragic outcome is almost inevitable. The sound of waves crashing on the shore sets the scene for an impressive song of epic proportions. The instrumental opening is perfectly in style, as is Beeftink’s narrative vocals, which are in their element here. ‘What is the most valuable commodity on earth?’ introduces a more straightforward section where the main musical theme first appears.
The keyboard parts of van Engelenburg and Waalkens are prominent throughout, while Mulder’s long melodic lines are reminiscent of Camel’s Andy Latimer. The decision to portray the quarrel between captain and queen as a duet, with the captain’s voice mixed softly in the background, is questionable, but the instrumental passage that follows is divine. The inevitable disaster that the queen’s selfish, prideful behaviour brings upon her kingdom is vividly expressed in the music. Even a touch of prog metal is not avoided. The overarching theme is reiterated with Mulder’s guitar soaring well above the music. Praise is due to the solid rhythm tandem, drummer Koen Roozen and bassist Harry Scholing. The nearly twenty two minute epic concludes with two minutes of crashing waves and screeching seagulls, a bit too much for my taste, a small gripe, but in the end all is forgiven.
Goosebumps galore and bursts of pure emotion – Leap Day has done it again. When Gravity Wins is an excellent melodic album, and just a tad better than the previous, much lauded Treehouse. That’s an achievement in itself. The album is brimming with wonderful melodic themes and well-balanced instrumentals. The vocals of Roelof Beeftink prove to be an improvement over the more hard-rock oriented vocalist Hans Kuypers. With When Gravity Wins, Leap Day confirms its position as one of the best prog rock bands in the Netherlands. Fans of Pendragon, Arena and IQ will also want to take this neo-prog to their hearts.
I suspect I already know the title of a song from the sometime-to-be-released successor to When Gravity Wins: surely Spring must follow, if the band wants to remain consistent. So far, they’ve proven just that: with a consistently upward musical trajectory.
TRACK LISTING
01. VOID (6:32)
02. Viral Cage (9:03)
03. Winter (8:10)
04. Falling Star (12:41)
05. Wrinkles (7:12)
06. Pride Before The Fall (22:24)
Total Time – 66:02
MUSICIANS
Roelof Beeftink – Lead Vocals
Gert van Engelenburg – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Eddie Mulder – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Koen Roozen – Drums, Percussion
Harry Scholing – Bass Guitar
Derk Evert Waalkens – Keyboards, Trumpet, Percussion, Backing Vocals
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: OSKAR Records | Independent
Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Date of Release: 1st November 2025
DISCOGRAPHY
– When Gravity Wins (2025)
– Treehouse (2021)
– Timelapse (2018)
– Live At The Northern Prog Festival (2016)
– From The Days Of Deucalion, Chapter 2 (2015)
– From The Days Of Deucalion, Chapter 1 (2013)
– Skylge’s Lair (2011)
– Awakening The Muse (2009)
– Demo (2008)
