| The
Review |
CAAMORA is a new Rock Opera, however not just another
one, but a really huge project between CLIVE NOLAN (PENDRAGON,
ARENA) and AGNIESZKA SWITA, with a lot of additional musicians.
It's also not just a CD they released, but a 2-CD set and
for the die-hards also available as 2-CD+DVD or a 2-CD+DVD+2
Live CDs set and for the rich among us, there is a box that
includes 2 CDs (studio), 2 Live-CDs and 2 DVDs besides a lot
of extra goodies.
Anyway, this all means we are dealing with something special
and you can indeed rank CAAMORA next to other big Rock Opera
like projects, such as AVANTASIA, AYREON, STAR ONE, etc. etc.
'She' is the title of the album, which lyrically is based
on the classic novel of the same name by Victorian adventure
writer H. Rider Haggard. It took them 2 years to finish it,
but the result is quite stunning, as one can also see on the
additional bonus DVD, which was recorded on 31st October 2007
at the Wyspianski Theatre, Katowice, Poland. Besides Clive
on keys and Agnieszka on vocals, other musicians include Alan
Reed (PALLAS/NEO) and Christina Booth (MAGENTA) on vocals,
bassist John Jowitt (IQ, NEO), Mark Westwood (NEO) and Martin
Bowen on the guitars, Richard West (THRESHOLD) and Steve Williams
on the keyboards and Scott Higham (PENDRAGON) on the drums.
Musically it is a mixture of progrock, progmetal, melodic
rock, sympho, neo-prog, epic metal, hardrock, pop... well
each and every style is reflected in CAAMORA's music, although
I would not musically place it next to AYREON and such, as
the sound is a little lighter and much more song based, so
you will not find long instrumental passages here.
I think you can best compare CAAMORA to the KAYAK projects
'Nostradameus' and 'Merlin', so most of the songs are filled
with emotion and start off quite calm, but develop into bombastic
tunes, although must be added that a lot of the songs are
calmer and the more rock orientated material can be found
on CD 2. Highlights are on CD 1: "The Storm" and "Ambush",
while CD 2 has some great uptempo rockers in the shape of
"The Eleventh Hour", "Resting Place" and "The Sands of Time",
although all the songs need to be seen as one long song divided
into 5 scenes. The melodies are very joyable to listen to
and like I already mentioned, this is not a pure prog, as
it is all much more song based with memorable melodies, really
like the Symphonic Rockopera's of KAYAK from the past few
years, with some MOSTLY AUTUMN kinda material added. More
info at:
www.caamora.net
(Points: 8.8 out of 10)
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