CREATURA

This is the first album by the After Crying, since 2003. The Creatura consists four suites. All song cycles begins with overture of grandiose full orchestra. The music is on this album enough eclectic, it contains hints of jazz with some classical and folk twists. We can discover some crimsonish tracks: Rude, Rain God, Three Desires. The floating Free Fall has a slight Genesis tone. The vocal of Zoltan Batky is excellent, he has warm voice. The trumpet playing of the Bal�¡zs Winkler are gorgeous. Then The Stones Will Sing: this is a five minutes cello piece from Peter Pejtsik, it's harkens back of the After Crying's primaeval. The Illusionist is very unexpected, tango style song. Despite the miscellaneous mood, the Creatura has a cohesion, it is in a great part due to the very intelligent lyrics. According to Gabor Egervary, this is a concept album about an alien, named Creatura, who arrives from the another planet. This being tries to understand the humankind of the attitude of mind. I think, Creatura is most accessible from the After Crying's catalog.

Correcting what someone wrote in another review: this is not the first album since 2003 but the first STUDIO album, as there was the remarkable Live inbetween. Anyway, people having followed this band as long as I did may have felt the chill on their back when they heard a new studio album was now released! And the higher the expectations, the higher the risk to fall and get hurt. I must admit the effect on me was like a bucket of cold water falling on my body! I guess this album will not be much remembered in a near future. Everything seems to fall apart or be awkwardly agenced; no English translations of the lyrics and singing or recitation DOES take a relatively important place here; if not enough, the album is supposed to be conceptual, good luck to find what concept! It is divided in four parts: West, North, East, South (very original never used thought!). Cardinal points according to WHAT? A room, a place, a city, a region, a country, a continent, the entire world? Nothing in the music points at any cue that could help you to differentiate the parts; and when the transition from one piece to another seems at time to be the fate of random, you don't know any longer where you are heading! This album lacks cruelly of a direction and no matter how good the musicians play, you can't but ask yourself: what's the meaning? There are a few spots where things get really hot, first of all a fantastic violin solo on track 7 (Goromba) but After Crying one more time destroy any continuity by interspercing those small individual solo miniatures; cello's turn, then classical piano's turn, then solo trumpet and so on. And at the end, you've been through good parts, very good at times, making no difference at all at other, making you feel looking at a piece of towel half torn in small bribes. And it hurts! Because we have been waiting since 2003 and the motivation behind the release of this new album seems questionable. Is there a future for After Crying? Is it time to call it a day? Well they called this one Creatura. What kind of creature is this then? A mutant or a ghost? I am very close to give it a two stars but because the playing is unfaulty, I litterally stick to the words of a three stars: Good, but non-essential.

I'm surprised to see that I'm the first PA collaborator writing a review of the last studio album of the Hungarian After Crying.

If anybody asks you what you mean for "Symphonic Prog", I think this band can be used as example. This album is not an exception: 4 suites (West, North, East and South), with lyrics in Hungarian with an alternance of orchestral and rock moments in the best tradition of the genre.

"Creatura" is an Italian word already present in the late Latin and means "Being" or of course "Creature". Unfortunately I don't understand Hungarian and I haven't found a translaton of he lyrics so even though I'm sure that it's based on a concept, I can't tell what it's about.

"West" has a symphonic intro, followed by a rock part with some passages reminding of King Crimson. The third part of this mini-suite is interesting. It features a narrator, bass, drums and mainly a background trumpet.

"North" is made of nine movements. It starts as all the four suites with a symphonic "Preludio" which is the reprise of the same intro of "West". It's followed by a jazz trumpet which reminds to the atmospheres of Blade Runner: dark and rainy, suddenly replaced by a piano minuet. After the piano it's hard rock with a strong Crimsonian flavor and an excellent guitar solo. The following movement is a song entitled "The Illusionist" with a French Chansonnier flavor. It's followed by a dark song made of keyboard and bass pitched vocals which makes me think to Rick Wright's Broken China. The strings quartet which follows is quite a natural follow-up. Everytime this band goes into classical music the result is excellent. The piano based instrumental which follows is another great piece. Then it comes the hypnotic "title track". Choir and percussive sounds for a very dark and grotesque song.

It's time for the third Prelude which starts "East" which is the shortest of the 4 suites. The first movement after the prelude is a dreamy peaceful instrumental. The transitions are less sudden than on the previous two suites. The passage between the peaceful mood to this dark section is smooth. For a while, it has reminded me to Marillion's "Passing Strangers". It's incredible how starting from the violin we can fall into a drum solo leading to a keyborad solo and then to one of the darkest and very Crimsonian moments of the whole album. Darkness enhanced by the following movement which has English lyrics. A dark rock song started by tape sounds typical of house music. Dark ambient now. A narrator speaks over a keyboard layer. Again Blade Runner comes to mind (the atmosphere). The question repeated by the speaker means "Are You Still Alive?". A wonderful minute and half of classical inspired music closes this third suite.

The prelude is 8 seconds shorter this time. The fourth suite, "South" has an electronic start which grows into a very good song, in Hungarian this time. A melodic song. Totally progressive followed by an uptime orchestral movement in Emerson Lake and Palmer style (the kind of orchestral things typical of Works vol. 1) with a lot of jazz inside. Effectively Gershwin and Copland come to my mind. One of the best things of the album. There's room for bass in the movement which follows. A rhythmic bass is the layer on which this instrumental developes on. Another moment of darkness reminding to Fripp & co. The closer is a choir accompanied by drums only. Excellent also this.

The only reason why I don't rate this album as a masterpiece is the fact that the various movements are too disconnected. Some transitions don't work very well and this sometimes breaks the listening pleasure. However each single track or movement taken alone is excellent. For fans of King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer and the dark side of Symphonic prog in general.