DRACHENBLUT

A great album! Though heavier than previous albums, Asgard again manages to create an mysterious but epic atmosphere in which to tell a heroic story. Recommended for any prog fan who likes instrumental complexity. I will address the tracks one by one.

- "Blue Fire" is a decent opener of the album, and is relatively guitar dominated. The vocals are really nice here, supplying extra melody and an atmospheric air to the music. Also some nice guitar solos can be found. Nice prog track.

- "Red Fire" continues the heavy guitar driven theme and vocal style of the first track, but its tempo is faster and more complex, bordering on prog metal at times, with meandering guitar solos on a background of atmospheric keyboard play. Also the chorus is a little more accessible. Suitable for fans of heavier forms of prog.

- "Ch.I Sigurd" is an introductory track, which introduces the story which will be continued in the next seven tracks. Some keyboards are used as background atmosphere, but there isn't much to say about the music here.

- "Ch.II Dragon's Blood" opens with an acoustic guitar, which reminds me somewhat of Ayreon's style. Definitely a lot softer than the preceding tracks, with a slightly medieval feel in the first part of the song. For the first time in this album, a flute is introduced, which adds to the light atmosphere. The second part continues the musical theme of the first part, but in a heavier style, more like the first two tracks of this album.

- "Ch.III Quid" really kicks off prog greatness in this album. It is the first track which reminds me of the other album of Asgard I know, Arkana. It opens with a long, soft and mostly instrumental intro, slowly building up tension and pressure, with at times the unearthly-sounding meandering keyboard parts I like so much about this band. The instrumental part continues for about 5 minutes, after which a heavier, more epic part with fast vocals starts. A problem with the vocals is that they are sang without any emphasis on syllables of words, and are often badly articulated, which is a shame, as the lyrics add greatly to the mysterious nature of the album. Nevertheless, this is the best track on the album so far, really enjoyable because of the instrumental skill displayed by the band.

- "Ch.IV Drachenfels" is a track with a heroic feel, reminiscent of the Ayreon track Sail Away To Avalon on The Final Experiment (note that, for the rest, this band doesn't sound at all like Ayreon, it's merely a coincidence that I've compared them to Ayreon twice). It is a rather happy, optimistic sounding song. This track also contains some surprising changes in tempo and melody.

- "Ch.V In the Lands of the Dragon of Midgard" starts rather gloomy, with synthesized choruses. A flute enters the music during the intro, played in a wild, improvisatory style which adds a surreal feel together with the low synths, very much like King Crimson does at times. Slow, low vocals, sang in a distressed tone, complete the dark mood. This feel continues for almost the entirety of the song, which is perhaps slightly too long. Nevertheless a fine track.

- "Ch.VI Initiation" takes rather long to get underway, but is a decent track. The instrumental and vocal parts are both nice, though they do not reach the quality of earlier tracks, and the emotional mood of the music is much less pronounced. The instrumental part in the middle is most worth listening to, with all instruments playing complex rhythms and melodies.

- "Ch.VII "I am the udder?"" is a rather noisy track that doesn't add much to the album. It is not bad, but somewhat repetitive, and the vocals can get annoying in this track. It reminds me a little of the boring "I'm the Guy" of Spock's Beard's album Snow (which of course wasn't written yet at the time), because of the vocal style.

- "Ch.VIII The Bathe" is a fully instrumental piano-driven track, improvisatory and progressive. Nice listening, but like the previous two tracks, it lacks the emotional feel of the rest of the album.

- "Memories from Sigurd's Past" is a fast track again with uplifting melodies and fast rhythms. Short and not very noteworthy.

- "Danger! (Sigurd in Love)" is the only track that is clearly neo prog, and reminds very much of the style of Pendragon, with continuous synth organs in the background, and less complex melodies. It reminds me most of the Pendragon track The Last Waltz on The World. Decent track.

- "A lime-leaf was on his back" is, in the first part, sang in the same style as "I am the udder," which isn't a compliment, but the vocals is less predominant in the music, and the music itself is less repetitive, and surprising at times, which makes this a great closing track for this album. It also brings the atmospheric, epic feel back in the music. The keyboard is played in an excellent way in this song, and the solo halfway the song is especially nice. The album is closed with a nice, melodic guitar solo, with a sudden, abrupt end where one would expect a gradual fade-out. I like surprises, it's a major part of what makes prog prog. A great track.

A decent beginning (tracks 1-3), a superb middle part (tracks 4-8), a slightly poorer later part (tracks 9-12) and a great finisher. You won't regret adding this album to your collection.