MANIKIN PARADE

Well, to tell you the truth I know very little about this band outside what little I could get from their biography on the artist page. I know that they're from Oklahoma and are fronted by Clay Withrow who is a multi-intrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter for the band. What I do know is that I've had Manikin Parade in my music collection for almost two years and I honestly have no memory of how I got this album. Another thing that I clearly remember is that completely dismissed the band for being a Pain Of Salvation clone, at a time when Daniel Gildenlöw had already started to drift away from the approach that's so prominently is featured on this album's title track, Estranger and Paradise For The Lost.

Manikin Parade can be dismissed for many number of reasons. The compositions and performance are far from original, featuring emotional progressive metal style that has been done to death by 2009, but the biggest problem for me is the album's 75 minute length. It's honorable for a band to release such an ambitious album, but I just can't help but think that this ambition is getting in the way of making the final product a worthy experience.

Some of these compositions could have easily been removed while most others could have been shortened down by a whole minute or two. Unfortunately even some of the album's strongest moments lose some of their momentum for sounding too much like tributes to other artist and not as original piece that could stand on their own. Outside the obvious Pain Of Salvation references, Gabrielle also features an entire section the sounds like Pink Floyd's Brain Damage and a few instances that make me think of '80s albums by Saga!

All in all, Manikin Parade is a very ambitious debut album from Vangough that clearly shows that this band, especially Clay Withrow, have some really great things ahead of them. Unfortunately, this album is only the beginning of this journey, but I will make sure to keep an eye on this band from now on since they clearly have a potential of making it big in the progressive rock genre!

**** star songs: Estranger (6:13) Manikin Parade (7:57) Handful Of Dreams (5:37) Disorder Quotient (4:42) Bricolage Theater (1:24) Paradise For The Lost (The Twilight Part I: Deception) (9:21) Gabrielle (The Twilight Part II: Love) (6:19) One Dark Birthday (6:59) Halcyon Days (1:46) The Cosmic Bus Stop (2:44)

*** star songs: Christmas Scars (7:37) Dance Of The Summer Mind (5:41) Etude Of Sorrow (The Twilight Part III: Oblivion) (8:44)

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