TIME TO REST

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Morild from Norway is a quite unknown band from newer generation of prog rock bands that releases one album untill now in 2010 named Time to rest. The band was formed around Nils Larsen, Alexander Holand Salgado and Odd-Roar Bakken in 2004 all 3 members coming from another prog rock band from Norway Adventure. This is a double album, a courageus thing to have right from the dubute with almost 2 hours of music. This is not an easy listning, at least at first spin, but the band manage to come with a pleasent symphonic prog release remind me a lot of Camel meets The Flower Kings and others. The music is warm well presented with some very nice passages, maybe sometimes to mellow for my taste but not bad at all. Flute is very well integrated in the melancholical sound, quite typical for scandinavian bands. The keyboards and specialy the guitar have an importnad role here and combined with warm voice of John Anders Troset this album is ok, good no doubt. The longer pieces are the most intresting ones, mostly on first CD, opening track All I wanted and Circus are the best Morild can offer here. A very beautiful full of warm arrangements is the ballad Blackbird's Lullaby. The second CD is in same vein as first, maybe little less convinceing in some parts but never the less ok most of the time. Time to rest is not an exceptional album by any means but features nice and enjoyble symphonic prog that can be tolerated by any prog rock listner. A bright star in Norway prog scene from today, realy curious how will sound the second release, if there will be one in the near future. 3 stars, a fairly good album with some ok and pleasent moments overall.

Morild came to birth in 2004 in Trondheim, Norway by part of the Adventure line-up.Bassist Nils Larsen and drummer Alexander Salgado Rodriguez were in the Adventure line-up for sometime, while guitarist/keyboardist Odd-Roar Bakken was among the founding members of the group and a longtime friend of Larsen.Bakken worked on Morild's debut for quite sometime and the recordings were put through, when John Anders Troset joined the band on vocals in 2008.Their debut ''Time to rest'' was recorded between 2008 and 2009 at Bakken's own studio with Mari Haug Lund providing the flute parts and Hans Kristoffersen guesting on guitar.Most surprising, this was a 2-CD work by a new band, released independently in 2010.

It can't get any closer to the fundamentals of Classic Prog than this.Eight tracks, five of which clock at over 10 minutes long with the three-part ''The slave ship'' approaching the 30-min. mark!Soundwise Morild appear to be heavily influenced by the classic groups of the 70's, most notably GENESIS, CAMEL, YES, KAIPA and URIAH HEEP, as a result they come close to other North-European bands like compatriots THE WINDMILL or the Dutch LEAP DAY.A mix of old and modern techniques provides a great instrumental depth and the long arrangements give plenty of chances for elaborate melodies, vintage-inspired orchestrations, injections of folky underlines but also some beautiful complex textures.Knowing that, you can expect plenty of different segments in the same track, a fair amount of delicate flute work and a great balance between the nostalgic sound of the Hammond organ and the powerful flights of the synthesizers.Harsichord, church organ samplers and piano are also included among Bakken's instrumental variety as well as some elegant acoustic soundscapes.The impressive melodies and the emotional guitar solos have a taste of some Neo Prog bands like GALLEON or ELEGANT SIMPLICITY, but the bulk of this release is pretty much 70's-oriented.There are no evident flaws in here, except maybe the usual lack of a personal character or some pale vocal moments, otherwise this is some well-composed Symphonic Rock album with endless, varied atmospheres along the lines of the 70's bands.

Sometimes it's better to release one CD over a double edition.This is not the case here.Too much good material to be left out, comprising of lengthy, symphonic-oriented tracks with interesting structures.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.