THE SPAGHETTI EPIC 3 - THE GREAT SILENCE

Ever since I discovered the great Colossus releases I follow them and look if there's anything new under the sun. And here we have found one: Spaghetti Epic no.3, The Great Silence. Somehow I'm still missing out on no.2 but no.1 was intriguing enough so I decided to go for this new release. Three epics are on this release.

Little tragedies is a new kid on the block from Russia and boy are these guys making a name for themselves! Fierce and super fast keyboards is their trademark, that's obvious after hearing this track. And what about great melody and tremendous compositional talent ? This is truly an amazing track that completely blew me away from first till last minute. At times it reminds me of Covenant but this is much more catchy. Masterpiece track for me ! 5 stars.

Yesterdays is from Hungary and I never heard of them either. But also these great musicians are highly impressive. Some original synthesizersounds in the first minute followed by very nice organ set the tone here. This epic is far more varied than the first one, more like most Colossus epics I heard in the past. But from a new band hearing such high quality stuff is a delicious surprise of course. Bull's eye contracting by Colossus I call this. Taking a risk and get rewarded for it, that's how I like it. 4,75*.

N.O.T. is an Italian progressive band and in most cases I'm not to keen on those. But every now and then there is a nice exception coming by and this is one of them. If I have to compare them to one of the two other epics it's absolutely the second. Also this huge effort by N.O.T. is very variegated. I like the part from 3:00 till 7:00 which is a tremendous instrumental effort with great build up. But also after this passage the quality remains very high. One of the best Italian efforts in Colossus history for sure, at least for my taste. 4,75*.

Looking at the ratings for each epic there's no escaping for the full score here. Am I exaggerating if I do that ? I really don't think so. I know just about all the Colossus releases and there were also a few 3 star and a four star rating amongst them. My huge love for epics doesn't blind me, on the contrary: I'm very critical in my judgement with the long songs. But I can't think of any reason to give this less than 5 stars. Extremely recommended for all proggers and especially the Colossusfans and epicfreaks

The third installment in Colossus Projects Spaghetti Epic series is yet another fascinating number in the series; continuing the high quality that is the trademark of most anything where Finnish Colossus Magazine is involved.

Littl Tragedies gets the honours of opening this album, and serve up on of the absolutely best compositions to tbe featured in this series. Organs, synths and keyboards dominate in a symphonic celebration covering most aspects of what's good in this stylistic expression - the 19 minutes this one lasts is a pure pleasure from start to finish.

Romanian/Hungarian outfit Yesterday is next, contributing with a track containing many intriguing parts, including a neat folk-tinged passage, but ultimately this one is too broken up to work as a whole.

N.O.T. finish this venture with an epic track that should intrigue most everyone fond of the particular Italian-styled symphonic rock. A tad patchy in places; but quite a few truly astounding passages makes up for most of this.

A strong release overall, where the opening number is a reason good enough to investigate this production.

Have you ever... , Did you sometimes ... , Well (this word always works), I though about what could be so special about third installment into this series. And when I heard this, I though to myself that it's very bad first few seconds of track. I expected western-like prog, no these crazy synths. But never mind, once I shook my shock, I get accustomed to perfect, increasingly strong composition, because this is not just song. First track is growing each minute, until dying animal-like sound of synth in the end, perfect conclusion. And Russian sung vocals are, well, typical for them. Second and third tracks are more calm, especially Yesterdays, which I know from their solo album (funny, I can't remember its name, too complex for me, something like Holden...). Very different, full of shorter tracks. Epic was probably big task for them, but they made it well. And last groups is like connection between these two.

4(+), except there is nothing of RPI, or western here, it's perfect, mostly instrumental album full of original compositions. Must have for all fans of newer prog rock.