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Paradox Hotel (2006)Flower Kings, TheProgressive Rock This is the recent double-CD album from the leading Swedish symphonic prog band The Flower Kings. I have discovered this band for myself not long ago, so I'm not enough familiar with their works yet. As for my first listening to "Paradox Hotel", it made a quite favorable impression on me. Unfortunately, my impression about this album wasn't as violent as it was, for instance, with an album "Keyholder" by another famous prog band of Roine Stolt - Kaipa. But, anyway, "Paradox Hotel" is quite beautiful and harmonious album. It represents very tuneful music with pleasant vocals and prolonged instrumental passages (for instance, a track "Monsters & Men" takes over 21 minutes). I'm sure this music won't leave any lover of complex and harmonious music in indifferent state. | |
Atol Scrap (2000)ArovaneElectronica Arovane is not very young (born in 1965) musician Uwe Zahn from Berlin. He started to experiment with sound when he was a teenager, then he was a member of different electronic bands and wrote breakbeats for Berlin underground (at that time) radio station Kiss FM. People often call his music as "music for the living machines". It's like it was created specially for listening after a hard day's work. "Atol Scrap" forces you into a sleepy feeling with its first chord or, rather, harmonious clicks and crackles under the melodious veil. The visual perception becomes disconnected slowly, so only the aural one remains, which begins to paint different dreamy pictures for your imagination. On the whole, this is a wonderful music, it's simple and melodious. As regards the working with sound, it's just perfect - there's nothing unnecessary here, nothing excessive. All in all, this is just what I expect from well-done ambient. | |
Eisenherz (2002)StahlhammerGothic Yes, the name of the album is loud and hard enough, but Stahlhammer's music has been changed. Earlier it was heavy, dark, almost funeral gothic metal, which even was called by many as "Rammstein-like industrial" (of course, that wasn't industrial at all). But now their music is far from gothic, and it isn't metal either. Stahlhammer became softer. Of course, some sinister atmosphere still presents, but their bent for experiments with sound and style mixture has knocked out the spirit of gothic metal from their music. It's really similar to industrial now. Generally, it's hard to define "Eisenherz" as commercial album. It seems that it has been created for Stahlhammer themselves, just for collection. Unfortunately, it's just another one unlucky experiment. I wouldn't recommend you to listen to this album more than one time. A thoughtless album. | |
Keyholder (2003)KaipaProgressive Rock Kaipa is one of the best progressive rock bands I've listened to during last months. Surprisingly melodious symphonic prog from Sweden represented on "Keyholder" has fascinated me with its first sounds, so I couldn't stop myself to listen to it until the last track was over. Combining progressive rock of the '70s with Scandinavian folklore, Kaipa brought some neo-progressive influences to the music of "Keyholder", so this album sounds very much freshly. When I was listening to "Keyholder" for the first time (at that moment I hadn't actually known anything about Kaipa), I even thought that Kaipa is the modern band, and only later I've got to know that this band was formed as far back as 1973. I think those thoughts of mine were caused by the similarity of Kaipa with The Flower Kings. It's no wonder because Roine Stolt, the originator of The Flower Kings, was (and is) a member of Kaipa as well. If you have listened to The Flower Kings and liked it, or you simply love beautiful and harmonious rock music, you just must to listen to "Keyholder" necessarily. | |
Seven (2004)MagentaProgressive Rock I didn't like this album much when I listened to it for the first time. It seemed to be monotonous and overextended to me, so I listened to "Seven" one time only and then forgot about it for a while. Last week I stumbled on this album again and thought: what if I had missed something with it? And I gave this album one more chance... Well, I've change my mind a little now, so I don't consider this album too boring any more. Yes, it's somewhat overextended, but it must be admitted that the vocal performance by Christina Maria Booth is pretty good. As regards the music, it represent a kind of slightly simplified neo-progressive, which is not much interesting to me, but it isn't bad either. In other words, there is nothing special in "Seven", but there's something that makes me rate it with 3 stars. | |
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)Arctic MonkeysAlt. Rock Arctic Monkeys is a teenage quartet that was formed in Sheffield, England, in 2003. They create vibrant punk-inspirited sound, which is well suited for Britpop and alternative rock fans. Arctic Monkeys' music is influenced by Franz Ferdinand (punk-funk guitar riffs), The Libertines (frantic rhythms and dashes of ska) and The Strokes (laconic, distorted vocal). Their early demos circulated on the Web as MP3s. Those demos built the band a rabid fan base before the Monkeys had released a record, even before they played more than a handful of gigs. In effect, 118,501 copies were sold in the first week after release. However, I do not like this album. In my opinion, "Whatever People Say I Am" is an unsuccessful combination of Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines and The Strokes. I'm disappointed. | |
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