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RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Triumvirat

Symphonic Prog


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Triumvirat Russian Roulette album cover
1.44 | 105 ratings | 13 reviews | 4% 5 stars

Poor. Only for completionists

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Studio Album, released in 1980

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Party Life (3:28)
2. You Can't Catch Me (4:08)
3. Come with Me (3:59)
4. Games (4:14)
5. Cooler (4:20)
6. The Ballad of Rudy Törner (4:20)
7. We're Rich on What We Got (4:09)
8. Twice (2:45)
9. Rien Ne Vas Plus (4:34)
10. Roxy (6:33)
11. Russian Roulette (5:48)

Total Time 48:18

Bonus track on 2002 remaster:
12. The Ballad of Rudy Törner (English intro) (4:20)

Line-up / Musicians

- Arno Steffen / lead vocals
- Jürgen Fritz / piano, Moog, organ, percussion, synthesizers, arranger & producer

With:
- Mike Gong / guitar
- Steve Lukather / guitar, bass
- Tim May / electric & acoustic guitars
- Pete Christlieb / saxophone, clarinet
- David Hungate / bass
- Neil Stubenhaus / bass
- Jeff Porcaro / drums
- Robert Greenidge / steel drums
- Alan Estes / congas, maracas

Releases information

LP EMI Electrola ‎- 1C 064-45 834 (1980, Germany)

CD Harvest ‎- 7243 5 35166 2 8 (2002, Europe) Remastered with a bonus track

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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TRIUMVIRAT Russian Roulette ratings distribution


1.44
(105 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(4%)
4%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(1%)
1%
Good, but non-essential (7%)
7%
Collectors/fans only (22%)
22%
Poor. Only for completionists (67%)
67%

TRIUMVIRAT Russian Roulette reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
1 stars I believe that it is not so often that an album gets the same consensus.

Absolutely awful.

Like almost every fellow reviewer, I just have wished that the zero star rating would have been available. The band turned already to a completely different genre with their previous album "A La Carte" but they really reached their very lows here.

There is absolutely not a single track which is worth listening (I really deserve a medal to have endured this). Not a single prog moment of course (but it was already the case with "A La Carte").

It is very difficult to identify the worst song here. I can't do it. Any of them could deserve this "honour". Is it the funky "Cooler", the boring "Games", the stupid "Come With Me", the disgusting reggae-ish "The Ballad of Rudy Törner" ?

Like the titled "Rien Ne Va Plus", it is really painful to hear how low a band can go. Isn't there anybody in their management to tell them : stop guys ? I don't understand.

Anyway, as one star is the minimum rating on PA, it fully applies to this absolutely dreadful album.

NEVER listen to this one. You will do yourself a favour.

Review by Tarcisio Moura
PROG REVIEWER
1 stars Honestly, I could never believe the once great prog musician and songwriter Jürgen Fritz could release an album worse than A La Carte. But, alas, he did. To call it a Triumvirat CD is an insult to the memory of one of Germany´s best prog groups of the 70´s. I took a long time to borrow this CD to review it. Granted: I was warned by everyone who did. But still I wanted to hear it to believe.

It´s really the end of line. Arno Steffen is the worst singer this band ever had, really awful. Of course the musicians involved are great, but the whole concept (or lack of it), the very poor songwriting and the mediocre arrangements blow it all. I can´t believe the once great songwriter Jurgen Fritz could, or even be allowed to, deliver such piece of crap. I mean, what happened to HIM? Did he ever think he could bastardise Triumvirat´s name to get a few bucks and get away with it?

Not even an average pop album, it does not have a single track that can save the CD from being a total failure. Fortunately this would be the last nail to the coffin. It´s the only good thing I can say about Russian Roulette: it was the last. An end that gave the fans a relieving feeling instead of one of sorrow.

NOT worth even for completionists. Zero stars. To avoid at all costs.

Review by VianaProghead
PROG REVIEWER
1 stars Review Nº 629

Triumvirat was a progressive symphonic rock band formed in Cologne, Germany in 1969, around the keyboardist Jürgen Fritz. Triumvirat is the Latin word for a triumvirate, a grouping of three powerful men usually connoted with the famous triumvirates of the Ancient Roman Empire. However, in this case, the word is referred to a simple musical trio.

The founding members of the group were the keyboardist and musical composer Hans-Jürgen Fritz, later simply known as Jürgen Fritz, the bassist Werner "Dick" Frangenberg and the drummer and lyricist Hans Bathelt. During their earlier days, Triumvirat initially performed Top 40 songs at local venues in Cologne. The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer heavily influenced Triumvirat's musical direction, unlike almost all of their Teutonic compatriots that founded the krautrock musical style. The group envisioned a more progressive rock music style as it came mainly from England, instead pieces of music with detuned guitars and ghastly singing. In fact, at the height of their musical career during the 70's progressive classic rock era, Triumvirat was often referred to as the "German Emerson, Lake & Palmer clone", with some injustice because they were more and better than that, due to Fritz classical virtuosity on keyboards and synthesizers, in the same vein of Keith Emerson and his musical style. They made some really amazing things, really.

Triumvirat subsequently produced modestly some very successful albums during the early to the middle of 70's. The band had numerous changes in their line up but always was headed by Fritz. Their debut studio album "Mediterranean Tales: Across The Waters" released in 1972, was however dismissed by the media as a second rate infusion of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and also their follow second studio album "Illusions On A Double Dimple" released in 1974, met in Germany only a moderate response. In the following years, the band released their third studio album "Spartacus" in 1975 and their fourth studio album "Old Loves Die hard" in 1976, their most commercial successful album. In 1977 and 1978 they released their fifth and sixth studio albums "Pompeii" and "A La Carte" respectively, and in 1980 they released their seventh and last studio album "Russian Roulette". Like other progressive rock bands of the 70's, the end came for Triumvirat with the turn of the decade, with the advent of punk and disco music. "A La Carte" and "Russian Roulette" changed drastically their usual musical progressive style, bringing new musical compositions geared to funk, reggae, disco and pop rock, as if Triumvirat was trying to adapt to the new musical tastes of that era.

The line up on "Russian Roulette" is Jürgen Fritz (piano, moog, organ, synthesizers and percussion), Arno Steffen (lead vocals), Jeff Porcaro (drums), Steve Lukather (bass and electric guitars), Tim May (electric and acoustic guitars), Robert Greenidge (steel drums), Neal Stubenhaus (bass), Pete Christlieb (saxophone and clarinet), Mike gong (electric guitar), David Hungate (bass) and Alan Estis (congas and maracas).

"Russian Roulette" followed in the footsteps of their previous studio album "A La Carte". It achieved the unthinkable by collecting an even more annoying and stylistically uninteresting collection of tunes than on the poor "A La Carte". As with its predecessor, there's absolutely no indication on it that Triumvirat was once a very accomplished symphonic progressive rock band, or that Jürgen Fritz was one of the finest keyboard masters of the 70's. Tediously, generic pop rock is what they made, this time with new wave overtones and even with a reggae track. The album opens with melodic, weak Rock'n'Roll and Pop numbers in the style of Status Quo and Toto. I will admit to linking a couple of tracks such as "You Can't Catch Me", "We're Rich On What We Go" and "Twice" are all decent rock songs. Yet, for every bearable song there's a complete abominations, most notable are the funky effects of "Cooler" or the unthinkable and inadmissible reggae "The Ballad Of Rudy Turner". The rest of the tracks are completely forgettable. So, "Russian Roulette" has nothing to do with prog rock, and, what is much worse, it also comes without no noteworthy ideas, really.

Conclusion: When I reviewed "A La Carte" I wrote that it was one of my biggest disillusions in the progressive rock. However, "Russian Roulette" is even worse than "A La Carte" is. The keyboard wizard Jürgen Fritz managed to make an even worse album. He could have buried the sensational progressive rock band in the 70's. This is by far the worst thing Triumvirat ever did. "A La Carte" is a real weak album but was a pop rock effort with some few honest songs. But, this album has nothing positive to offer to a Triumvirat's fan. At least it managed to do a good thing. It became to be the band's final album, so no more pain for band's fans like me. After reviewing so many albums on this site, I only gave 1 star to two albums, till now, "Giant For a Day" of Gentle Giant and "Earthbound" of King Crimson. With "Earthbound" there was a very special reason. It deals more with the sound quality of the album than with its musical quality. But, "Giant For A Day" is really a bad work. However, "Russian Roulette" is the worst of all. So, do yourself a favour stay away of it. If you never listened to it, you'll never have a bad image of the band, especially if you are a newbie with them.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Latest members reviews

1 stars Well... What we have here is an album that shouldn't have been allowed to exist, a total shame in all genres you can imagine. I am a prog fan and a post punk and new wave fan as well and I can say it's a trash in any style they try - without success - to imitate. I remember I couldn't even believe ... (read more)

Report this review (#2040734) | Posted by Pimalves | Wednesday, October 3, 2018 | Review Permanlink

1 stars This could easily be the worst album ever made. Some great progartists have released really nice pop/new wave albums (Mike Oldfield, Yes, Genesis, Rush). Even Camel, Renaissance and Caravan were enjoyable in their more pop-oriented phase. Because the stayed somehow true to their own sound. But t ... (read more)

Report this review (#1871804) | Posted by Kingsnake | Sunday, February 4, 2018 | Review Permanlink

1 stars I will always give releases multiple listening before passing judgment on whether I like a disc or not. I tried with this one...it's not the Triumvirat that we have come to love. Gone are all progressive elements of anything they have done previously. It sounds like Randy Newman meets the Bay ... (read more)

Report this review (#1285901) | Posted by OldSchoolProg | Monday, September 29, 2014 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Triumvirat were playing Russian Roulette with their fans. Like an idiot I went out and paid my hard earned money for this thing that crawled out of a sewer. Even ABBA fans would run away from this disaster with their tails curled. I'm just wondering if there's anybody else on the planet who bo ... (read more)

Report this review (#1015868) | Posted by Vibrationbaby | Saturday, August 10, 2013 | Review Permanlink

3 stars From the start, Russian Roulette is nothing like the classic Triumvirat music period that fans knew and loved, and many felt it was a let down because of that. My appreciation and understanding of this record has grown over what was a pretty long span of time. ... (read more)

Report this review (#626160) | Posted by presdoug | Saturday, February 4, 2012 | Review Permanlink

1 stars 10 000 polar bears would never venture into a record shop to buy this album. Therefore; 10 000 polar bears cannot be wrong. Triumvirat really morphed into a joke on this album. Gone is the ELP copycat and in comes a band who really only plays commercial rock with some Supertramp influences. Th ... (read more)

Report this review (#624690) | Posted by toroddfuglesteg | Wednesday, February 1, 2012 | Review Permanlink

1 stars This has got to be one of the worst albums by a good prog band going commercial. When listening you don't even have a hint that this is Triumvirat. They should have just changed their name. "A La Carte" is even brilliant compared to this. 0 stars, not even for completionists. ... (read more)

Report this review (#56685) | Posted by cmidkiff | Thursday, November 17, 2005 | Review Permanlink

1 stars I would give this album zero stars if it was possible. "Russian Roulette" is very poor in all senses: an awful cover, mediocre songs and an overall weak performance by all musicians (some of them are great instrumentists, but you'll never say it when you listen to this album). Arno Steffen is ... (read more)

Report this review (#40367) | Posted by M. B. Zapelini | Tuesday, July 26, 2005 | Review Permanlink

1 stars I swear I thought that I got the wrong CD. That sound could not come from Triumvirat. Well, for someone who once sang "I sold my soul to rock and roll I never got it back", it seems he finally got it... I understand Jürgen Fritz had the right of changing his style as many time as he felt this 20 ye ... (read more)

Report this review (#11882) | Posted by | Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | Review Permanlink

1 stars I tried to understand why a musician like Jurgen Fritz (leader of a very good progressive rock band, that triumvirat really was!) comit artistic suicide!! This album is a joke! and nobody deserves it (a truly bad one!). Simply horrible in it´s entire concept (cover, production, composition, musical ... (read more)

Report this review (#11881) | Posted by fredfontes | Monday, March 1, 2004 | Review Permanlink

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