III OF DREAMERS

The first and so far only full-length album from this Finnish trio. I'm still not sure if this or the EP -C- was released first. The style and production of that EP seems to be different to this album, which has a little bit more in common with the first EP. III Of Dreamers is far more symphonic sounding than either EP. "Overture" is the opener and probably the best song on the album. Nice moody symphonic instrumental featuring some Mellotron near the end.

"The Camel Song" does not sound anything like the band Camel. This is some decent symphonic prog on the more sombre side. "Ocean" is a clean electric guitar and vibraphone based instrumental. Nothing horrible but nothing special either. This is followed by "The Dreamer" which is almost straight classical music, like something from a film score. "Almost Famous" starts out very quite. Only after 2 minutes does it turn into symph rock with harmony singing and great retro synth sounds.

"Dike" is acoustic guitar based and slightly sinister sounding until electric piano, bass drum and vocals come in. Some drum machine and Mellotron in this track. A spoken word part in Finnish in the middle. The more sinister sounding acoustic guitars get reprised with some cool synth sounds. One of the stand out tracks on the album. "Motherside" is the only real rockin' song here. Goog guitar and bass tones along with harmony singing. A long echoed spoken word section in English with an almost ambient backing in the middle before the music gets more dramatic sounding until 5 minutes when we get some tribal percussion and synthetic choirs. Strange song.

"Anon" begins almost sounding like Sgt. Pepper's-era Beatles. Then minimal piano and more spoken word in English. Around 2 1/2 minutes it turns into darker symph prog. Nice guitar arpeggios halfway. Later the music builds towards a crescendo then mellows out for a bit and comes back rockin' with symphonic keyboards. Odd start but great ending to a song, and great ending to an album. I actually didn't enjoy this album as much as I did their EPs. A little too inconsistent and these guys may be too diverse for their own good. This is still a well-written and made album, just not my cup of tea generally. I'll give this a 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.