SONG OF THE MARCHING CHILDREN

A masterpiece of early Dutch symphonic rock. The beautiful voice of Jerney Kaagman, added to the fantastic mellotron-sound of Gerard Koerts and the beautiful fat Gibson Les Paul sound of Chris Koerts'guitar, determined the great sound of Earth & Fire. They delivered some fantastic symphonic rock music, before drifting off to a cheaper sound in the late seventies.

Song Of The Marching Children is their number one masterpiece, which is filled with a brooding gothic atmosphere. Apart from the first two songs and the instrumental "In The Mountains"(can't have been in Holland), all songs carry the same dark atmosphere. "Storm & Thunder" (a true symphonic rock single, that topped the charts!!) is one of the many highlights. I have the Esoteric Record version and that has the original single version as one of the bonus tracks. This edition also provides the best mastering.

Title suite "Song Of The Marching Children" is an oasis of mellotron sounds, that will also appeal to those who loved "In The Court Of The Crimson King". A sombre and depressing march ends this true symphonic epic.

A must in the collection for all those into early mellotron dominated symphonic rock ! As you will see at the end of the rating line, this album was (again) not appreciated by the proggophobic clan of daemacho, waeguk, purplefloydfish, marfish and other sad persons, who all at the same time decided to reward this album with their two star ratings. Again, we wonder: why?????

progpig66.