OPUS: DESTROY

One of the mysterious entries from Germany, Irmin's Way was a group of British and German musicians, who's identity had remained hidden upon request.The band was named after the eponymous god on Saxon mythology and was around in mid-70's, at a time when they recorded their only album, previously carrying a different name, it was propably Tin Pan Alley.''Opus destroy'' was recorded at the Ege Studios, but apparently it was never pressed on time, only to appear two decades later on the efforts of the Kissing Spell label, which launched the album both on CD and vinyl formats.

You wont' hear many Kraut Hard Rock bands placing a neurotic keyboardist next to the sparkling riffs, but Irmin's Way was one of them and their sound showed a band with potential.''Past & present'' is such an example, where the frenetic hard riffing and the impressive guitar twists meet a flashy keyboardist with a sharp synthesizer in his armour, while the vocals are a bit amateur, I dare to say that the members should have been way too young at the time.But the music is mostly very good and dynamic with variations, tempo changes and complex themes akin to ERLKOENIG.''Eremite'' is a much more symphonic cut with Classical orientations and some spacey textures in the process, highlighted by the good combination of heavy guitars, soft piano and floating synthesizers, a mood strengthened by the very pompous and epic vocal lines.''Alone'' is more of the same, although a bit more fast-paced and pretty similar to early-80's German acts such as ANYONR'S DAUGHTER, eventually the synthesizer is now complemented by the Hammond organ and the smoky guitar work has something of an early ELOY flame into it.Especially the later part comes in an almost Proto-Metal style.At the end comes an ambitious attempt on a 22-min. epic by the band, which comes as a combination of Hard/Psych Rock and Symphonic Rock with lots of synth flights and guitar moves, creating atmospheres with laid-back instrumentals and more powerful deliveries, the first half actually comes in a more symphonic vein with a strong Teutonic edge due to the soaring keyboards and the epic vocals, featuring some nice lyrical parts and grandiose themes, while the second is pretty harder with its fantastic guitar parts and the surrounding keyboards.Maybe a bit like NEKTAR meet ELOY.

Both releases by Kissing Spell tend to be expensive, as time goes by, but the attempts of these mysterious guys on Kraut Prog were sincere, passionate and quite intricate.Recommended, especially if you like the archetypical style of 70's Teutonic Prog.