STAINED GLASS STORIES

Cathedral, this cult band from USA with thier legendary debute album Stained glass stories from 1978. This album is considered one of the best progressive rock albums USA ever offered with a considerable amount copies sold in that period, around 12.000 copies printed and sold , when prog was in decline on every corner of the globe. Well, I see this album a good one towards great but not a masterpieces as many pretend to be, second, this is slightly symphonic prog to my ears, this is almost zeuhl in parts with blistering very in front bass lines and even jazzier moments appear here and there. This album is quite complex, I mean the bass lines of Fred Callan are really impressive and chalenging, it can be considered a real zeuhl bass player. Another thing the vocal parts are very Gentle Giant like, quite dissonant passages, not bad at all but nothing special either. Now the music besides this zheul/jazzier falavour, it has a certyain Yes feel to it, in guitar department, Rudy Perrone has a guitar tone very similar with Steve Howe one around Relayer, Going for the one era, also some similarities with another american prog band Starcastle, here and there aswell. Only 5 pieces with opener and ending track clocking around 11-12 min are to me the most promissing effort of the band. Complicated, twisted prog rock with very tight musicianship and some excellent instrumental sections. I really like this album, but I can't find it a masterpiece or something alike, is a good one for sure and stands as one of the best from the '70s from USA. 3.5 stars, nice cover art.

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