| The
Review |
Wow. I had really been waiting for this one. Mangala Vallis'
first album, The Book of Dreams, was fantastic Genesis-inspired
prog with tons of wonderful analog keys and some great melodies
in a retro-prog style. On one of the tracks on the first album,
Bernardo Lanzetti of PFM (Chocolate Kings era) and Acqua Fragile
fame lent his vocals. Well, he is the sole singer on this
one. Before we start I might as well get this out of the way:
you either love his voice or you hate it. There is no in between.
I happen to love it, but I can see how some hate the "warbling"
nature of it. Some have described it as Gabriel singing into
a fan. Anyway - his voice sounds EXACTLY the same as it did
way back when he sang for Acqua Fragile, if that helps.
Now, on to the music. This cd is better musically than
the first. This is straight up, first rate prog in the Genesis
vein with mellotron galore, moog and organ and the whole gamut
of prog keys. The guitar interplay is fantastic, and, on top
of all this, the melodies are first rate as they were on the
first disc. I won't pretend to understand the concept here,
but needless to say, this album is not really about werewolves
- I think it is more in a metaphorical sense perhaps.
After a meaningless filler intro (read "skip") the cd
kicks off with a bang on "Cosmotraffic Jam" and never lets
up. "Call Me Alias" continues with mellotron and Lanzetti
in a beautiful duet and then gets quite majestic with fluid
Floyd-like guitar leads. "Lycanthropy" the song is very "Battle
of Epping Forest"-like and is great. This segues into "Animal
Song" which provides more majesty (bells, mellotron, epic
guitar leads). Then come 2 epic tracks at 13 and 11 minutes
back to back with "The Boy that Howls at the Moon" and "The
Mask", respectively. Both are amazing with all the requisite
elements: acoustic guitar, more great flowing leads on electric,
so much mellotron you can't see straight, organ. The cd ends
with the darkly wonderful "The Transparent and the Obscure",
perhaps the best track (though that decision is tough as they
are all great). The ending group vocals are awesome, and create
a great ending to a great album. I really loved this one and
hope we see much more from these guys. Vocals in English,
by the way.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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