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Gryphon - Red Queen to Gryphon Three CD (album) cover

RED QUEEN TO GRYPHON THREE

Gryphon

 

Prog Folk

4.15 | 724 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars This album has been in my collection for couple of years ago - long after this album was ever released. I was not aware at all about the band during my first years with rock music. I purchased it because my prog friends recommended me. I was not quite impressed at all with the music the first time I spun the CD. For me, at that time, the music of this album was just like a collection of bits and pieces without any direction, melody-wise, in which direction the music leads to. I gave up the CD and put it on shelf and never get spun again until recently when it was about time to review this album.

Honestly, until I spun it again this morning, I still don't get the idea what the band is trying to do, musically. It sounds to me that the melody was not crafted beautifully. One thing for sure, conceptually this was created for depicting a chess match. Considering this intention, this might be enough to say that all emotions, conditions and situations pertaining to any chess match are described or represented here. The next question is why must it be something as dark as this? Chess can be expressed in much more dynamic way by gearing a music which blends multitude of feelings: a feeling of struggle to find the best strategy to win the game, the feeling of accomplishment in conquering the enemy and a feeling of sadness from being conquered by the enemy. The problem with me is the composition of its music that sounds like disjointed parts. Oh yes, I agree that chess match creates emotional challenges to the player as every time we are challenged to decide the best move and anticipating what and how the enemy would react with our move. This is what I clearly do not understand.

I just want to make my point clear here. Yes, this is one of legendary albums of the 70s. Yes, it's definitely a prog album and it's not the bad one. The trouble I have is that (I have to honest) it's very hard for me to digest the music and for sure it's not the kind of music that fits my taste. My standpoint here is based on my efforts to enjoy this album but failed to give good credits musically. It's so many disjointed parts that do not connect one another smoothly. So, I conclude that this is for those collectors who appreciate the uniqueness of this album. Therefore I give it a two stars rating for this. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Gatot | 2/5 |

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