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Leviathan - Leviathan CD (album) cover

LEVIATHAN

Leviathan

 

Crossover Prog

3.43 | 45 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

GruvanDahlman
Prog Reviewer
3 stars I've had this in my collection for many, many years. Always cherished, in some way, and I have returned every now and then for some of that Leviathan semi-magic. The album is not a bonafide classic but it do possess charm and talent, fusing hard rock and progressive elements in a good fashion. The boys obviously had a vision and did pull it off, maybe not to a 100% but they did take it far.

The first track "Arabesque" opens up with nice mellotron, guitar and ambiance. It then leads off into a rumbling and powerful riff and superb bass. I think it is one of the greatest tracks on the album. There are great vocals and harmonies in here that need to be acknowledged. Hard rock, southern boogie and prog combined, maybe a bit too heavy handed but still great. The mellotron drenches it all very tasteful, making it a song of several layers.

"Angela" is a sweet ballad, of which I have not much to say. It is soothing, in a way, coming straight up after "Arabesque" and it's hard rock sound. "Endless dream" is possibly the album's most ambitous and progressive piece. Lasting for 10 minutes it is an epic echoing the late 60's (Vanilla Fudge, HP Lovecraft, Iron Butterfly etc.). It is powerful, reflective and simply terrific. Yet again, the mellotron gives the track something of that very special progressive feeling. I think it is great.

"Seagull" is sort of Free, with it's bluesy riff and steeped in hard rock of the times. It makes up for great hard rock with nice slabs of distorted organ. Not very progressive, though. A beautiful thing though is that the riff to the next track, "Angel of Death", is recurring in "Seagull", only to burst free in that specific track. Again, not that progressive as a whole but terrific hard rock.

The following two tracks are "Always need you", yet another ballad, and "Quicksilver clay" which is a semi-progressive hard rock song. Not bad but not fantastic either.

I'd like to round off this review with a summary. Leviathan's sole album is a hard rock album with southern flavor and quite a lot of progressive elements. I hear Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge and bands like Cream and Free in there, all at their most ambitious and progressive peak. (I would not call Free progressive in the sense of prog rock but they did produce some great hard rock, progressive blues orientated music.) There are lots of mellotron giving the album that certain progressive feeling. Alongside the great instrumentation and commitment the band showed to producing music of quality and progression I'd say that this album is well worth checking out. It's good, even terrific in places, and if you happen to stumble across it I'd say "buy it!" but I would not recommend you to travel the Earth in pursuit of it.

GruvanDahlman | 3/5 |

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