NOVALIS

After the charming debut, the classic artwork of the second Novalis album had me in a very positive and expecting mood. As it turned out, this is another typical second-tier symphonic album with some captivating music but suffering from vocals and compositions that are either too bland or too predictable to deserve a place amongst the best.

A typical example is the opening track which contains great symphonic space rock in the middle section. However, in order to get there you have to indulge the bland German crooner vocals of the opening. The symphonic magic will also be ended abruptly by the awkward change to hard rock 'n' roll around minute 6. In short, the band doesn't seem to have the ideas and musicianship to forge the good basic material into something really remarkable. The instrumentals Dronsz and Impressionen are better and have some potential to fans of early Floyd, Eloy, Camel and Genesis.

If you're looking for lost gems of the 70s symphonic prog scene I would generally recommend to look further south to Italy and not spend too much time in Germany. Even though the German scene has a very personal sympho-kraut sound, there are very few albums that rise above average. Take that from a big fan of the German 70s music scene.