THE PYROMANTIC SYMPHONY

This record is in fact a very beautiful one, but certainly nothing very exciting or progressive in a way. For sure reminiscent a bit of MIKE OLDFIELD (but of lower quality I have to say), also not as good as STEVE HACKETT's classical excursions, maybe the closest comparison would be GANDALF (the other Austrian fellow), some of RICK WAKEMAN's weaker more ambient kind of outputs, JON & VANGELIS or KITARO, but merged with some rock elements. It's mainly instrumental music apart of some beautiful pastoral choir, very much keyboard dominated, but as well with some quite good guitar parts. For what it is, that is some romantic "dinner music" for quiet and relaxing moments I'd say it's not a bad album, but don't expect anything interesting and relevant for an advanced Prog listener. Recommended only for lovers of the musicians mentioned above and good for 3 stars!!!

As the majority of prog fans age well into their 50s and beyond, and begin to pay the price for thousands of their limited free hours spent grooving to their favourites when they should have at least been bowling, I should like to be a fly on the wall when first a prog-friendly doctor prescribes something appropriate for his patient with the weak heart. "No more EDENBRIDGE and OPETH for you, nay, not even YES or GENESIS for they are too moody, and FLOYD will make you wish the first scare had done you in." Then the good doctor reaches for the pad and scribbles the typically undecipherable Rx which you dutifully take downstairs to the pharmacy and are handed this CD. Weak medicine indeed, although ANT PHILLIPS might be a better choice.

But seriously, this isn't bad at all, and some parts are surprisingly edgy in a palatable manner. It's certainly prog-lite, like CAMEL meets YANNI. Here and there I also hear the echoes of ODYSSICE, FLOWER KINGS, KERRS PINK, and, of course, MIKE OLDFIELD and GANDALF. The choir doesn't add much to the classically romantic feel for which LANVALL strives, but "Islands in the Stream" does hit the pastoral sweet spot. The best track here is "Castles in the Air", which is one in which LANVALL nearly cuts loose on lead guitar to spine tingling effect. "The Eternal Dream to Fly" is a bit more hit and miss but some of the guitar-key flourishes are spot on.

In the long term, I don't see myself reaching for this too often unless medically necessary, but, while this may not appeal to pyromaniacs, it might be hard to resist LANVALL's occasionally brilliant romantic vision. As you were.