INQUIRE

Drawn out and uneventful.

I must admit, this is probably the most boring album I've heard in decades. In between some reasonable action at times, the lull is almost sufficiently long to have a little sleep and not miss a thing. Established artists like Pink Floyd can get away with extended pieces and a laid back approach and make it work. This band however are not PF and are taking liberties at offering the holes in their Ementhaler cheese with little solid material on the side.

Some narration in German is not really helpful either and only adds to the dull monotony. The most surprising thing is that when these musicians decide to be a bit more lively, they play quite well. The odd run on the synth, nice guitar work is rather pleasant, but those moments are few and far between and the whole times of activity would barely add up to a couple of shorter pieces - not an album of 76 mins in duration.

The score between holes and cheese is 4:1..

JAWOHL!This is the kind of album that we can judge it to be made of intelligent and almost philosophical music!Definitelly-MELANCHOLIA is a atrue masterpiece ,an album rich in emotions and a permanent state of grace aquiredAmateurs of high quality music will have plenty of satisfactions discovering theis so talented and heavenly gifted band!This is typically German-precission-strong compositions-great musicianship-top production album-a clear and ambitious musical direction!Pure symphnic prog,very well produced and very well performed by some greatly talented musicians!Just look at the cover,and you'll realise thet behind such an expressive cover..it's impossible to find a weak musical message..isn't it?It's hard to describe song by song this album,because I see this album in it's integrality-unity! What is particular at MELANCHOLIA-is the natural and fluent succession of the songs,in a pure and perfect harmony and logical musical developement!The album has a musical crescendo track after track and in the end we realise that we made a serious audition of something of a great quality!It's the taste of musical satisfaction...and hummm!I want more and a new audition will reveal other senses for such a complex musical release! Unfortunatelly the band split after this superbe release but rumors says that TRESPASS,,the core of INQUIRE musicians,will rise again and so we have to wait what the future will bring us from this talented gentlemans. So...INQUIRE is dead...but TRESPASS is reborn!! 5 STARS to an exceptional album of symphonic and intelligent prog!

This is apparently a concept album based around the movie of the same name. Lyrics are in both German and English with quite a bit of narration. Think of PINK FLOYD doing a Neo-Prog album and your not far off. I do like the guitar and background synths, but the vocals and narration are negatives. Some heaviness at times too which I like.

"Die Bettwurst Part One" is the almost 21 minute opening track. Seagulls then spoken German words come in. Vocals 3 minutes in and it stays pastoral until before 5 minutes when the organ, guitar and drums kick in.The tempo picks up as the vocals come and go. It turns heavier with some great bass after 11 minutes. Nice guitar before 12 1/2 minutes. A calm follows as German words arrive once again. The phone's ringing before 15 1/2 minutes. Piano and German words follow. More excellent guitar after 18 1/2 minutes as it kicks back in. "Circles" opens with deep spoken words in German before laid back guitar and drums take over.The deep voice is back 5 minutes in. It kicks in heavier 7 minutes in before settling before 9 1/2 minutes. More deep spoken words. I like the waves of synths late.

"The Death Of Ase" sounds good with the guitar and drums leading the way. "Swidwin" opens and closes with church organ with vocals, guitar and drums in between. "Die Bettwurst Part Two" opens with German spoken words, guitar before a minute. Vocals and keys take over. It sounds good when it picks up after 2 minutes. Lots of synths follow. It settles before 10 minutes and the drums sound good. Samples before 12 minutes. "Die Berliner Bettwurst Part One" is the humerous conclusion as we get a polka flavoured melody with silly German vocals. Probably how he lost his tooth.

Good album but inconsistant for my tastes.

Inquire seems to fall into that hideous grey area that befuddles many fans, the proverbial "Love or Hate it" category and this emanates from the lack of any comprehensive ratings on our PA site and even elsewhere. So what gives? At first glance, there is nothing extraordinarily boring on one hand or avant-garde on the other to justify such a lack of response, being rather pretty straight forward symphonic rock led by a sizzlingly linear guitarist (Dieter Cromen) who has a "bleeding" phrasing and style that is highly suggestive and even original, while colorful keyboardist Robert Köhler and deft drummer Thomas Kohls round out the classic lineup. The previous album, "The Neck Pillow" wasted no time in setting down the parameters of their craft and "Melancholia" is a tectonic upgrade, an ultramodern, even at times uncanny, collage of moods and atmospheres that confuse, collide and coalesce well together, over a span of 2 CDs and an hour and a half of startlingly vibrant progressive rock. The first album, clocking in at a massive 76 minutes, conveys in musical terms the insensibilities of "La Nausée", Jean-Paul Sartre's epic dissertation on the human condition with a series of tracks that combine brief yet spooky narration (French with a German accent!) and sensational symphonic bursts that sear, churn, mortify and assault the senses. "Bienvenue à Bouville", a short accordion-led French theme that explodes into a torrential mellotron wave, slashed by an inflammatory lead guitar that slowly weaves the mood, synthesized e-piano, "tic-toc" drumming and a reverberating bass conductor. When the turbo charge is flicked, the piece goes into sonic overdrive, verging on Hawkwindian space, brutally propulsed into the void. Cromen tortures his incandescent axe with various Hendrixian caresses, searching out faraway musical territories, loads of shifting speeds and moods, this is a drop dead dazzling opener! "Nausea" resumes the creative insanity with Cromen doing a little guitar bicycling à la Fripp, some detached vocals adding spook and frenzy, while dissonance meets dysfunction. The hysterical guitar romp flashes through the schizophrenic ambiance, echoing snippets of paranoid female vocals, followed by a fluid guitar solo that "out-gilmours" David Gilmour, a bluesy and frenetic promenade that manages to convey the title quite convincingly! "Anny pt1" is a short fret interval, with disjointed female narration, setting the stage for the next mind blowing marathon , the succulent "Der Autodidakt" , nearly 10 minutes of primo symphonic prog as an ornate piano weaves tight melancholia, the buzzing guitar steaming merciless ahead, very Germanic , quite direct, with hints of classical inspiration, a smidgen of jazzy cool (that conniving piano again), a surprising synthesizer solo fuses overhead while the axe grates below, a echoing and disjointed voice lists the names of philosophers and scientists (Plato, Einstein, Schopenhauer, Voltaire, etc..). A dictatorial Hammond organ rages nearby with passionate glee, jostling with the piano for center stage, while the spotlight shines on a gentle guitar reading that blooms into a revisit of the earlier lead guitar theme for another roundabout and some more vocal weirdness. Wow! "The End of a Sunday" is another lengthy affair, with a slightly more playful envelope (a proggier version of Meatloaf?), presenting some circus-like clowning around (vocal effects and bar room piano noodlings), when all of a sudden both whistling synthesizers and wooshing guitars decide to take over and enter the cacophony. This is no commercial fare, but rather heavily perturbing, uncompromising and overtly creative modern rock music. A rampant Cromen flight takes all the jangling pretense into an oddly neurotic zone. This is a tough listen, severely eerie as if Syd Barrett was winking from above. "Anny pt2" relies on some peculiar piano touches, as the orchestrations reveal even more nostalgia, a solitary synth blast (very "Lucky Man") illuminating the spectral proceedings. "The Museum" is a protracted 13 minute masterpiece with classical orchestrations hastily introducing that typical Cromen sidewinder guitar flurry, drilling pitilessly into the night, shifting the mood constantly from quiet muted introspection to brutally enraged reality. Halfway through, the chaotic atmosphere evolves into a maze of angry rants, bizarre noises, strange riffs, oozy notes and honking organ jostling with notorious guitar buzzes. The final 2 minutes tumble into outright psychedelia, choir mellotrons toying with the insistent guitar phrasing. "The Chestnut Tree" is a nightmarish fiasco of disassembled harmonies, disconnected thematics and obtuse playing that instantly transposes itself into a goose-stepping musical parade, as the bass pounds remorselessly, the fret slithers in and out of focus, a feral effect-drenched solo lighting the theme asunder and an unruly organ as likely companion. Ding Dong! "Anny pt3" is the third and final intermezzo, more collated sonic effects and oddball fragments. The massive title track initiates the final curtain call and remains the key showpiece, a resoundingly psychotic architecture of sound and substance that coalesces into a deep symphonic adventure, dropping boom boom-bass and boom boom drums all over the guitar infested groove, occasionally diverted by some beautiful piano formations, train clicks rolling along as the somber clouds slowly move into Bouville. Prog is certainly a venture into the unknown. The second CD is a different kettle of experimental fish, inspired by a modern symphony written by French composer Louis Vierne ("Welcome to my Rock and Roll"), a 5 part suite of short pieces, starting off with the whirlwind "Allegro Maestoso", a raunchy guitar-dripping tryst furiously flirting with bombast, spiced up with some sonic sarcasm and irony. "Cantilene" has the synths doing the damage, coyly whirling in and out of the orchestrated tubular bell tussle. "Intermezzo" and "Adagio" clearly search to show off some devious attempts at classical music, using synths, pianos and guitars to up the ante. "Final" is the most accomplished arrangement, with some more stellar lead guitar playing and a feeling that these are musicians who clearly enjoy their passion. That this "kolossal projekt" has such a diminutive fan club is beyond my comprehension. It is a modern, exhilarating, brooding, powerful, humorous and persuasive slab of precious symphonic ecstasy, with remarkable production values, thus creating a constantly fiery soundtrack to some philosophical movie like "A Beautiful Mind" but in a proggier setting! Entirely enjoyable and deserving of 4 Sartre vomits. Merde alors!

A VERY difficult album to get into, I have tried multiple times to no avail, and will try no more. It's ambitious for sure, too much so for its own good, with a tendency to remind me of the 4th rate German 80s group Anabis. While the sung vocals are virtually atonal and not much fun, the shouted spoken parts are simply maddening. The theme described in the sleeve notes is fairly mundane and does not stand on its own.

Musically this alternates between relatively uninteresting repetitive keyboard motifs and relatively clunky heavy guitar parts, but all generally played at a snail's pace, largely devoid of subtlety. Guitarist Dieter Cromen is decent technically and plays some nice leads but the production generally quashes his efforts. All the tracks have their moments but in general this comes across as attempts by an 8th grader to make a major discovery in chemistry class only to blow up the lab. At some point you need to look at the end result and ask was any of it really worth it?

Inquire's "Neck pillow" is a rather uncomfortable and substandard item that is best avoided altogether. I've rounded up because I'm so happy I can now take my own advice.

When music is this good all you can do is say wow ! Right from the opening bars this album really takes the listener into another world... in fact slightly resembling for me a film score. This 2 CD dual concept album plays out two different stories with side one creating a 75+ mins musical score intended to accompany philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "nausea" . The second CD is an 18 min epic prog-suite aply titled "Welcome To My Rock N Roll" based on a symphony by French composer Louis Vierne. German prog fans might be interested to note that 2 of the members of this band were once ex members of TRESPASS. Although accompanied by narration, it is clearly in their instrumental work that shines thru with some fantastic keyboard, drum , bass and guitar interplay. Musically these guys are amazing and blend 70's progressive rock sensitivities (aka GENESIS and ELP) with a modern complex yet interwoven and tight fusion vibes (TUNNELS, BRAND X, ARENA) Also key to note that this album is exceptionally well recorded and sounds nice and lively over the ol' speakers.

"The Neck Pillow" was the second album release by this German experimental prog rock band who wrote here a real gem of an album. With 2 epic tracks titled "Bed Sausage part 1 and part 2" what else can you say? Hard to exactly peg this album musically but I would suggest a pretty clean split of UK's "Arena" with Italy's "La Maschera Di Cera". Musically these guys blend symphonic keyboards with heavy grooved guitar and bass riffs and beats creating a strong and energetic vibe throughout. The music of INQUIRE is always intriguing and shifting and offers many surprises along the way. Instrumentally this band is amazing offering some pretty courageous yet well constructed and highly original music. "The Neck Pillow" also contains an excerpt from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite ! INQUIRE would have to be one of the freshest progressive bands to have come out of Germany in some time. Highly recommended !

Before buying this CD I checked this site and found 1 rating of 1 star, so I decided to temporise with getting it. However friend of mine persuaded me to ignore ratings without reviews and let me listen to Melancholia. After second listen I was totally in love with this masterpiece of progressive rock, and jumped at my first opportunity to add it to my collection. This is what I call true masterpiece!! Amazing album. It contains two CDs. First is Melancholia itself based on Jean-Paul Sartre's (famous French philosopher-existentialist) novel "Nausea".This is 76 minutes of sheer brilliance, real irruption of musical ideas, beautifully arranged and masterfully performed. Second CD is 18 minutes long prog-suite based on organ symphony by French composer of beginning of 20th century Louis Vierne (unfortunately unknown to me). To me it sounds like wonderful, complex and beautiful prog suite heavily influenced by classical works, however Inquire themselves named it "the beginning of a new movement, what we call rock and roll".

Absolutely indispensible! Undoubtful masterpiece of prog!

Edited 10/4/2005!

Inquire's debut album was released under their own production and has been recorded in live studio sessions without using any overdubs. Musicianship is really quite good, only vocals by the excellent guitar player Dieter Cromen are not really perfect, but not disturbing as well since most of the album is instrumental. The sound is situated somewhere between Neoprog and Progmetal. There is a good balance between keyboards that sound a bit too synthetic and 80's-alike and quite heavy distorted guitar parts. Compositions are very versatile and divided into several parts without sounding too incoherent.

First track, the quite dark The Inauguration of King Kong is starting with strings (synths), sound effects and a short guitar part introducing some chords from the following Kongfrontation which is apart of a short middle vocal part almost instrumental as well and quite rocking, very good song. Kindergeburtstag is a bit surrealistic and presenting a motif in several variations from strings to solo guitar. Maze Of Despair is starting in a dark mood with a sound that reminds to a musical clock followed by strings, continuing with an IQ-reminiscent middle part and finishing with vocals. Der Mann (based on 'Toccata' by Aram Khatchatourian and the famous book 'Als die Ente Amok lief') - great title - an instrumental track again is a bit CRIMSON-alike, quite heavy and odd. When Darkness Turns To Light clocking 26 minutes is a very versatile track offering quiet and loud, rocking and atmospheric parts with mostly great musicianship apart of non-matching vocals and cheap-sounding organ parts. Overall Inquire Within is a quite good and enjoyable album, a remarkable debut and worth to be checked out by all fans of Retro-Prog. Not really an essential one, without the mentioned flaws one could rate it higher probably, but anyway very promising German band!

I would describe the music on this album as "krautrock" or what is popularly referred to as "space rock", with influences also from neoprog bands such as Twelfth Night or early Marillion - especially in the keyboard work. But equally with references to Porcupine Tree, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Eloy. The music is simply very good and carries on the tradition of great German bands such as Grobschnitt and Novalis; and as far as any comparisons to a single album is possible, it is perhaps best compared to Grobschnitt's "Solar Music Live." Another thing that Inquire seem to have inherited from Grobschnitt is the same strange humor which can be noted every now and then, not only in the music itself but also clearly evident from the liner notes. To sum it up, this is a really captivating album and definitely one to savour.