AVES

These days, when I am sent something to review I load it into a playlist on my iPod and initially listen to it in the car. This allows me to ensure I listen to the albums in some semblance of order, so hopefully am always working on those that I have had longest. But, it does mean that I am sometimes surprised by what I am listening to in that I can't remember where it came from. That is what happened with this album, as I was driving along trying to work out where on earth I had got my hands on a reissued prog album from the late Sixties/early Seventies as I was sure this hadn't come from Eclectic, and was the wrong type of music for Yesterrock, yet these are pretty much the only reissue labels I deal with these days.

So, when I got home I started looking through my files and realised that I must have been sent this to review by a friend of mine, so had no information on the band. That got me searching the internet, and a short while later I was sat there quite amazed, as this isn't a reissue at all, but instead is a brand new piece of work from Norway. I honestly thought that this is from the period, as if ever a group was using Ken Hensley as a starting point then this is it. But, it's not just classic Heep with Byron style vocals, as they also bring in some Tullisms and then attempt to make it more modern by also using Camel (so maybe '75 instead of '71). There is Hammond organ aplenty, along with flute where required and lush guitars and great vocals. Simply put, if you ever enjoyed the first half a dozen Heep albums, especially the numbers that contained acoustic guitar, and are fond of Tull, then this is essential. This sort of music just shouldn't exist in 2013, but I for one am very glad that it does. tihlde.org/~alexandr/morild/

Norwegian band MORILD was formed by Nils Larsen, Odd-Roar Bakken and Alexander Holand Salgado back in 2004, and the current incarnation of the band came to be in 2008. They released debut album "Time to Rest" in 2011. Two years later Morild returns with "Aves", their second full length album, self released by the band.

Strong, emotional lead vocals and epic length, multiple-themed compositions of the symphonic progressive rock variety with the organ as the key instrument are what Morild provides on their second album "Aves", with at least a foot and a half firmly placed in the 70's as far as style and expression is concerned. Those with a sensible set of ears for vocals might want to approach this one with a bit of caution, but otherwise this is a production that should be a nice fit for those who tend to enjoy music described as retro-oriented symphonic progressive rock, especially those amongst them who also enjoy bands like Uriah Heep from the same era.

Morild from Norway is a quite unknown band from newer generation of prog rock bands that releases two albums untill now in 2010 named Time to rest and in 2013 Aves. 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.

Aves 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 and aswell have same attitude and atmosphere as previous album, also some folk moments remind me of Kerrs Pink. The music is warm, elaborated , smells of mid to late '70s , well presented with some very nice passages, maybe sometimes to mellow for my taste but not bad at all. Lots of instrumental passages, 2 of the pieces are clocking above 20 min each. Flute is very well integrated in the melancholical sound, quite typical for scandinavian bands. The keyboards and specialy the guitar have an important role here and combined with warm voice of John Anders Troset this album is ok, good no doubt.

Avesd 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 third release, if there will be one in the near future. 3 stars, a fairly good album with some ok and pleasent moments overall.