25 лет спустя. Юбилейный концерт / 25 YEARS AFTER. JUBILEE CONCERT (CD)

Strong musicianship, exciting lasershow, legendary tracks from 80s. Berkut now works in ARIA, a true legend of Russian Heavy-Metal and his voice became much heavier. Sitkovetsky is a Master of Guitar, he plays the right things in right time: stunning music and great experience for those who was on their shows during the Anniversary tour.

Lord, I wish they'd have a reunion; that would be just awesome! I'd recommend this CD to EVERYONE; just come and get'em!. The DVD version, I guess, is much more amazing.

Two words for a summary first - awesome concert! The band invited former members and guests for this event and delivered a fabulous performance. Remarkable for the sound are the permanent changes between symphonic (sometimes ELP-like) and groovy rocking parts.

If they are already looking back at a history of 25 years (as the title offers) I wonder why it took so long until they released their debut in 1986. Vocals are totally in russian and of course this is somewhat unfamiliar to me. It doesn't matter. The important thing is you can listen to a very good melange of Symphonic and Art Rock.

Leaving the electronic intro it all starts very relaxed. Yesterday (the day before? I'm not sure about the english translations of the cyrillic titles) is a minimalistic keyboard dominated song associated with excellent vocals by Arthur Berkut. And then the band hurries up with Fasten seat belts - an instrumental with great guitar licks and a mix of symphonic and jazzy keyboards. I don't want to describe every song but there's one promise - this release is a musical revelation (despite of one or two exceptions). City is a super groover with saxophon attendance and Requiem from their first and selftitled debut is also to point out. Imitating a spinet and suddenly getting tempo which remembers at ELP (Fanfare For The Common Man) - a fantastic song!

Second Disc starts with a little suite combining three songs in a very different mood - the centerpiece IMO. The opener is a very melancholic and spacy thing, a part of Martian chronicles which then glides into 2000 Years, another wonderful grooving song with Chris Kelmi on organ and Sergei Brutijan on the lead vocals. Third part is Clouds a nice ballad with clarinet played by the former band member Sergei Mazaev. Ireland, Ulster against is an interesting mix of symphonic keyboards and a funky groove. Dizziness is mainly used for the band introduction and Oh, my boy for rocking the crowd.

'25 Years After' is a great mixture of AUTOGRAPH songs and gives an excellent overview of their work. You don't have any russian band release with vocals in native language? Try this!