SCHEHERAZADE

Scheherazade was the ancestor band to Novela and while they did not have a proper release back in mid-70's they built a cult fame around their name mainly because they were the initial career point of the most important figures of 80's Japanese prog.Guitarist Terutsugu Hirayama formed Teru's Symphonia and Toshio Egawa found Gerard, both in early 80's.The two musicians along with singer Hisakatsu Igarashi formed Novela in 1979 while bassist Jutaro Ohkubo became a member of Starless and drummer Hideaki Indou followed his own way with Pageant.In early-90's the historical line-up came back together to record a self-titled album under the Scheherazade name, released on Nippon Crown.

The young mid-70's members of the band were now veterans of the prog scene and the album holds all the great but also bad assets of 80's Japanese prog throughout.Not surprisingly the sound is very close to NOVELA and even GERARD, a mix of fairly accesible Hard Rock tunes with keyboard-driven Symphonic Rock passages.The tracks are filled with short introducing and middle-set preludes, heavy guitar playing and orchestral keyboard performances, often blended with superb breaks in an E.L.P. style but also filled with strong rhythmic guitars and screaming vocals.Compositionally the band lies on a good level, trying to mix easy-going Hard Rock with more demanding instrumentals.However the transient cheesiness met in many Japanese albums of the style is present as well.Vocals as usually are rather dull and not the first reason to buy the album, while the production and a light dose of the plastic keyboard sounds are not great either.The bombastic sound, the good arrangements and the memorable tunes on the other hand are more than enough to enjoy this release.

A bit leaning on the dissapointing side regarding the experience of the members participating, ''Scheherazade'' marks a decent return of the old Scheherazade line-up to produce an album of Hard Symphonic Rock, which has its moments.Recommended overall, unless can't stand the Japanese vocals or the bad English accent.