IL MINOSSE

In 1998 the company that supported Goad's early albums, Multipromo, released the live album ''Glimpse''.Pretty weird, as the band was not well-known at the time, so I guess they certainly had a cult following at the time.This album scans various styles and moments from Goad's long history.Come 1999 and Goad release ''Il Minosse'', named after the king of Crete in Greek mythology.Originally this work started as a soundtrack for a theater play, but eventually became a standard entry in Goad's discography.

Goad seem to have fully entered the progressive realms at this point, but the lack of a stabilized core and the below the average mix of Rossi's multi-instrumental performances stand as unfair to an effort, which otherwise should have sounded really better.The basic lines on this album come from the Classic and Neo Prog genres, showered by Goad's familiar approach on doomy passages, theatrical lyrical parts and laid-back textures.There are a couple of problems though, firstly Rossi's voice is all over the place, somewhat burrying some decent attempts on instrumental music, while the thin-sounding orchestrations hurt the consistency of the album, as big part of it relies on them.There are occasional psychedelic flashes with obscure guitar moves and hypnotic rhythmic lines and the atmosphere is rather mellow and dark.Again bands like ERIS PLUVIA or EZRA WINSTON are the best comparisons with less folky touches, but Goad fail to reach the inspiration of their compatriots at this point, although some background instrumental moments with a symphonic grandieur are pretty cool.A spark of light appears towards the end and that's the style the band was really good at.''Caccia e uccisione di Minosse'' is a beautiful, instrumental piece with emphatic choirs, upfront keyboards and a quite dark atmosphere, similar to other 90's Italian bands, ''Danza di Iside'' has a lovely, cinematic atmosphere with orchestral overtones and ''Rinascita di Minosse'' is yet another attempt on dark Progressive Rock with percussion over atmospheric keyboards and a great Mellotron-drenched outro.

Uneven album with some good instrumental parts in a dark, symphonic vein, flavored by some psychedelic colors, but suffering from mediocre recording quality, mix and vocals.Should appeal to fans of 80's/90's Prog along the lines of MOONGARDEN, TALE CUE, THEATRE or EZRA WINSTON.