THE MINSTREL'S GHOST

This is the first album from The Minstrel's Ghost since 2012 and is also planned to be the final release from the band as leader Blake Carpenter has decided it is time to move on. Blake provides some of the lead vocals, plus rhythm guitar and keyboards, and is again joined by Tony James Martin (bass, lead vocals). Jartse Tuominen has joined to provide lead guitar (which was provided by the much-missed Colin Tench on the last album), and drums this time are by Mark Troup (who also provides lead and harmony vocals). There is something missing from this album, as there is no real spark or vitality. There is nothing inherently awful about it, but it feels as if it is just meandering along waiting for an idea. It certainly doesn't sound as if it is the third release by a band, and if I had been just given this without any information I would have expected it to have been a debut release by an unsigned band, as opposed to something on the mighty MRR.

Yes, it is a dark tale, but there are too many times when it feels contrived and false, as if there was no real heart and soul, no emotional connection with what was being performed. It is an album which I have to say didn't improve with repeated playing, and is one I can't imagine I will ever be returning to.

"The Minstrel's Ghost" is a Crossover Prog band from the US, that was formed in 2011 by multi-instrumentalist Blake Carpenter. Since 2011, he has released 3 albums. The album "Jack: A Different Tale" is the 3rd album and was released in April of 2019. Blake performs on keyboards, rhythm guitar, and does most of the lead vocals. Other musicians on this album include Jartse Tuominen on lead guitar; Tony James Martin on bass and lead and background vocals; and Mark Troupe on drums and lead and background vocals.

The album is made up of 12 tracks that stay between 3 and 6 minutes each. The album has a run times of over 53 minutes. The album tells the story in song about a boy growing up around dark influences that lead to murder and finally suicide.

"Alone" is an introductory track led mostly by guitar and a moderate rhythm. The sound is a definite David Gilmour style. "Born" features the first vocals on the album, but the lead vocals are done by Mike Troupe on this track. The music is slow and atmospheric, mostly led by a piano and the thoughtful, sad vocals. The band comes in half way through the track. "Growing Pains" keeps the tempo moderate, but the guitar at the beginning is brighter. Carpenter's vocals are introduced here and are a bit tinny and they sound like there is some processing done to his vocal tone. This track has a nice, driving bass line. There is a synth solo followed by a guitar solo here. "A New Day" is definitely more upbeat, but Carpenter's vocals are a little better on this track, but they still have that strange tinny sound that can be a little annoying. The music to this point is pretty straightforward and accessible, but could use some challenging elements.

As the album continues, "New Scars" continues with an upbeat sound, but the vocals eem to worsen here. He tends to have a Peter Gabriel sound, or least attempts to, except that his tone is off enough to be noticeable, and slightly off key. The track itself is not at all interesting. Things slow down for "Goodbye" as the album turns to a dark tone. Subdued synts back up a slow guitar solo until the piano comes in with more vocals, which still haven't improved. "Darkness Falls" is an atmospheric instrumental led by guitar. This same sound continues in "It Begins" except with bad vocals.

"The News" features lead vocals from Troy James Martin, but his vocals aren't much better and the interest in the music continues to wane as it is all quite straightforward and light on the progressive side, with the usual guitar solo stuck in there. Things don't get any better as the album goes on, in fact it even gets embarrassingly bad at times.

The music just stays quite uninteresting without any real ear-catching material and the story behind the concept is not that great. I can't really come up with any real positives on this album, except for maybe some of the guitar solos, but the music is very predictable, the vocals are mostly unemotional and off key. This is one that can be avoided.

"The Road to Avalon" is the second album by Blake Carpenter's Minstrel's Ghost project, and as I have heard, it was originally intended to be a more metal-styled endeavor. However, along the way the original guitarist was caught up in other commitments and so Blake asked a guitarist he had met in a chatroom to play on his album. The keyboard player was also a chatroom acquaintance. Ha! Well, that sounds a bit odd but the musicians were none other than Colin Tench who has made quite a name for himself in the prog scene of the 2010's and keyboard player Marco Chiappini. Add Zoltan Czorsz Jr (ex Flower Kings) and Troy James Martin on bass. Blake Carpenter also handles keyboards and guitar and, of course, sings.

The subject of this album is the Legend of King Arthur, and though it could have easily been made very cheesy and pretentious, Blake turned it into a very suitable production, making good use of keyboards to give the album a softer story-telling touch as opposed to a charging guitar-driven retelling of the tale. Actually, I feel the choice of keyboard sounds and the playing style is one of the main attractions to the music of this album. I would give credit to Marco Chiappini for this, but I heard that Blake also played keyboards and had a big influence on the sound. Aside from piano, the keyboards are often a soft whistling or almost flute-like sound but without sounding like a synthesized flute. There's a New Age music feel that makes much of the keyboard melodies very beautiful and soothing.

The album opens with "The Journey Begins (The Avalon Overture)" which is effectively a medley of melodic themes that occur throughout the album. There's piano, guitar, synthesizer, violin, and even a harder rock guitar bit that is perhaps a remnant indicator of how the album had been originally conceived. There are three "Avalon" parts here which are reiterations of the Avalon main musical theme presented in different musical environments such as soft and flowing to more speedy and aggressive. The songs follow the story of King Arthur from the time he is discovered by Merlin to Camelot to his betrayal by Guinevere to his death. The music is sometimes a little loud and hard in places, like a neo-prog/arena rock approach but the actual songs are mostly sung in a softer tone with Blake giving us very little of his more energetic vocals until near the end of the album.

Reading some of the other reviews, I have read some people expressing disappointment with the vocals or the drumming but I quite enjoy Blake's more subdued performance here and I feel it suits the subject matter. As for Zoltan's drumming, yes, there are places with a 4/4 beat but just as often he plays a steady bit with a bit more complexity. Of course he gives us an appreciatively brief but enjoyable drum solo near the beginning of "Camelot" on side two. Colin Tench's guitar playing is, as usual, very in tune with what's happening in the music and his playing effective and outstanding.

I've listened to this album a few times now, two or three times when I first got it early in the year and now again a couple of times more recently. I really enjoy much of the music as well as how Blake has handled the vocals. The CD ends with the three parts of Avalon stitched together but I haven't been able to conclude that this was entirely necessary. The lyrics and melody repeat in each part and I think the treat is better enjoyed when it's spread out over the album with other songs and melodies in between.

An album with lots of pleasing sounds and playing. Credit goes to Blake Carpenter for executing his vision with the right people and making this album work so well.

Almost 4 stars but not quite there

The MInstrel's Ghost conducted by Blake Carpenter were releasing in 2012 the second album named The road to Avalon for sure the best from two issued so far. Well, here we have a nice great line up , the drumer of The Flower Kings - Zoltan Czorsz, Gandalf's Project's keyboardist Marco Chiappini and Colin Tech from Corvus Stone + Troy James Martin and of course The MInstrel - Blake Carpenter. The music is beautiful here, despite some influences from glorious '70 prog like Genesis, Pink Floyd even some Kansas here and there, the whole work runs smoother and with intresting passages. Very nice the art work, in fact the whole package is great, didgipak , made by one of the better disigners in last decade or so Ed Unitsky. Returning to the music, despite some minor problems from my side regarding vocal arrangements, not bad but not quite on par with the great music, in places seams little forced and mediocre, Carpenter's voice while ok is far from great, no real range or melodic articulation of his vocal tone. Anyway a piece like opening he Journey Begins (The Avalon Overture) only gives joy to the listner, a fairly solid tune in real prog tradition, a highlight for sure, even the best track of the album I might saying. The rest are also from good to great, no particular low moments on this album. The synth and guitar are melting in a perfect unit, Zoltan done a good job on drums and overall this is more then decent work, at least for me. 3.5 stars it desearvs, a nice one.

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A pleasant travel through melodic and oneiric musical territories

The Minstrel's Ghost is a project lead by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Blake Carpenter. In order to make his concept-album around the Knights of The Round Table, 'The Road To Avalon' a dream come true, he asked friends to help him in his endeavour. Friends include guitarist Colin Tench (already involved in many prog-rock projects, such as Corvus Stone or Colin Tench project), drummer Zoltan Csörsz (of The Flower Kings fame), the young keyboardist Marco Chiappini, and bassist Troy James Martin.

"The journey begins" with Tangerine Dreamesque keyboards, followed by Colin Tench and his aggressive guitar soloing. It lays the ground for the main theme of the album. Colin's soloing is interrupted by a cheerful piano before going on again. Floating keyboards then take the lead. When the mellotron joins, the music slows down and together with the guitar, gives a flair of Pink Floyd to the song. Then some "whistling" keyboards provide a dreamy vibe. Soon, the music accelerates with the aggressive southern rocky guitar of Colin. Keyboard-generated choir together with acoustic guitar and violin close the track. This overture goes through the different themes, that will later be developed in the songs that follow.

In "Avalon part I", the main theme is repeated on guitar after a bizarre keyboard loop (think the short keyboard loop repeated in Lyle Mays' first movement to "Alaskan Suite"). Blake sings with accents of IQ's Peter Nicholls. Keyboards and guitars, both aerial and anthemic, punctuate Blake's chant. The repetitive keyboard layers in the background retain a Berlin school electronic music feel. The chorus that comes at the end of the song features the words to the main theme that is repeated all along the album.

"Merlin" is a slow-paced song. It starts with a gentle guitar in an andalusian way, accompanied by a sad piano. Blake starts here in a "whispering" Fish (ex-Marillion) style of his more recent material. The chorus is very floydian in its approach (think "comfortably numb"). The enchanting keyboards of Marco then accompany the piano, and Colin performs a solo in the Zappa line. Towards the end, Colin and Marco mimic each other in unison and in a cheerful way. "The lady of the Lake" starts with an acoustic guitar like in Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", with some eerie keyboards, as if escaped from an electronic/ambient record. Aerial solo on electric guitar follows with accents of Steve Morse and Steve Vai. Keyboards then take over with solos in the tradition of neo-prog acts like Marillion's early eighties output. Colin's solos continue in an aerial way. Zoltan maintains the pace with solid and hopping drumming. The song ends with the eerie keyboards of its start.

"Excalibur" is a mid-tempo song opening with bombastic keyboards (dare I say like in Europe's "final countdown" or in Van Halen's "jump"). To this flashy soloing succeeds the whistling keyboards of a Thomas Bodin (The Flower Kings), associated with the sequenced synthesizers of an electronic prog act. In the bridge, the keyboards return to the neo-prog realm of the previous song yet with some bombastic echoes. Colin delivers guitar solos in an aerial mood.

"Avalon part II" returns to an acoustic atmosphere, with andalusian echoes in the introduction. Sad keyboards follow in the tradition of meditative works of electronic prog artist Bernd Kistenmacher. A cyclic acoustic guitar gives an hypnotic feel to the song. Blake sings very low, as if he was whispering to the ear of the listener. Colin provides some Zappa-like solos, then after Blake sings the main theme, he switches to aggressive southern rock of Allman Brothers blended with the aerial solos of Steve Morse. "Camelot" has a cheerful overture with dancing drums, whistling keyboards and sunny guitars (one can even hear Ravel's "Bolero" at 0:47). Keyboards retain a hypnotic feel, like in the overture to Genesis' "The lamb lies down on Broadway", and the keyboard loops remain in the background during the verses. A mellotron shows up after the second verse, and is accompanied by Colin's excited and aerial solos. Tony Banks keeps in mind after the first two verses (think the instrumental bridge in Genesis' "cinema show"). And to remain in the Genesis family, Blake even tries to sound like Peter gabriel, with some "nasal" effects in the voice. After the third verse, keyboards wander in neo-prog territories and the ghost of Mark Kelly (Marillion) floats again. Colin's cheerful solos close the track.

"A love betrayed" starts with slow and aerial guitar solo (with some slight echoes of Yngwie Malmsteen's "Black Star") together with meditative keyboards, like in the overture to Pink Floyd's "shine on you crazy diamond pt 1". Pink Floyd keeps in mind with Blake's gilmouresque intonations of the voice. However, the song turns for a short moment to country-pop when drums join. Then it becomes overtly pop with the catchy chorus, yet with a hard-rock/southern-rock approach in the guitar work. In the bridge comes a keyboard solo with some notes trying to "escape" the cohesive harmony. Blake follows the same approach in his singing, with some higher notes escaping from the regular singing.

"The Son" starts with a "galloping" overture (typical of Iron Maiden: imagine an accelerated overture to Iron Maiden's "Powerslave") followed by raging guitars and upbeat tempo. Hammond B3 replaces the keyboards to provide the atmosphere of the heavy rock songs of the seventies. The galloping theme of the start returns before the last chorus.

In "Avalon part III" the bizarre keyboard loop opening "Avalon part I" returns, Colin provides some aerial solos. The pace turns faster when Zoltan starts beating the drums. The song slows down when Marco performs his keyboard solo. Colin follows with an aerial solo. Blake then joins for the most passionate vocal performance of the whole album, very theatrical in its approach. His colleagues provide backing vocals in the chorus and then the pace goes faster again.

"Le Morte d'Arthur" (Arthurs' Death) is acoustic guitar (with once again echoes of spanish folklore between 0:49 and 1:06), with floating and echoing keyboards, a keyboard- generated choir, to accompany the throbbing voice of Blake (as if "agonizing", see the title of the song).

"The End" closes the album in a fast pace and Blake's vocal performance evoking Iron Maiden's choirs (remember the "wo-ho-ho" of Iron Maiden's "Alexander the Great"). It is a true firework with anthemic guitars and keyboards.

The musicianship is amazing all along the album: Zoltan provides creative chops, Marco explorates various keyboard sounds with an impressively wide range of references from electronic music to progressive rock, Colin provides his unique signature where David Gilmour, Frank Zappa, Al di Meola, Isaac Albeniz, Santana, Steve Vai, Steve Morse and Duane Allman coexist in harmony, Blake delivers heartfelt vocals with intonations adapted to the mood of the song, Troy provides solid bass ground. Combined with a strong sense of melody, this makes for a very enjoyable album.

First of all, I am sorry for taking too long for writing this review, and thanks for the patience. Well, The Minstrel's Ghost offers here in The Road to Avalon" a 76-minute album divided in two parts, which at the same time are divided in mini-passages, songs that are telling a story, jigsaw pieces that have to be together if one want to complete the puzzle; songs that are full of symphonic textures and images created by its sounds.

So "The Journey Begins" with an intense and challenging passage, a 7-minute track that gathers different nuances and shadows over a pillow of keyboards and a nice mixture of symphonic sounds with some spacey atmospheres that produce a delicious sound, overall the mood is mellow and calm, but it changes when "Avalon Part I" begins, because here the guitar adds power and a sense of vertigo or worry. Here the voice enters for the first time and begins to tell the story. "Merlin" is softer and mellow, here the guitars (electric and acoustic) make an excellent communion and create a very nice atmosphere. After a couple of minutes drums enter and the music becomes friendlier. Here I found some reminiscences of Mike Oldfield and Mostly Autumn.

"Lady of the Lake" is a nice instrumental journey that let our minds fly and imagine the scenario, when that kind of thing happens, it means the music has succeeded. Then all of a sudden "Excalibur" begins and the story continues. I must say the voice is not the best I've ever heard, but it is nice to tell the story in this album. In moments the music becomes a bit catchy and easy to dig, belonging in that crossover prog label. "Avalon Part II" starts beautifully, with an instrumental passage that shares tranquility and relaxation, not far from the new age realm, but always within the symphonic one. Later vocals enter and complete the piece. The music may not be the most complex ever, but it is not necessary, its charm lies on it.

The second part of the album starts with "Camelot", here the band put some "live" sounds of the arrival of Camelot, some voices and joy can be heard until drums appear making a cool solo that a minute later is accompanied by keyboards, little by little the instruments join and create a cool and more vivid piece. "A Love Betrayed" begins with a chat between two people, the atmosphere shares uncertainty and even some tension, after two minutes (its two best minutes, actually) the vocals enter and produce that catchy sound near to classic soft rock. "The Son" has come with a rockier style and more energy. After 2 minutes a battle can be heard, swords everywhere, horses and people screaming; and after 30 seconds keyboards enter with the same energy and make a victorious solo. The same energy and vertiginous sound appears in "Avalon Part III", an almost instrumental piece that once again produces images in our head, a very nice one.

"Le Morte d'Arthur" has a softer sound, melancholy dropped here, memories and sighs. It is linked with "The End" but one can easily appreciated the song change with the rhythm, this one is faster and more explosive, with nice guitars and a repetitive but cool rhythm that effectively has the sound of goodbye. But after the end there is another story, a 15-minute song called "The Road to Avalon" which is good, but honestly unnecessary, it is like a big reprise and a summary of what the album is about, nothing more. This is a very good album, and I've listened to it some 5 times so far, however, it lacks of an element that make you love it, because now I feel I will not listen to it soon again, but who knows. Final grade, 3 stars.

Enjoy it!

The Minstrel's Ghost is in fact a one-man project by the North American musician Blake Carpenter (vocals, keyboards and guitars), and The Road To Avalon (2012) is his second album. It was released by Melodic Revolution Records in December 2012.

The Road To Avalon (2012) has Colin Tench (Corvus Stone & Bunchakeze) on lead guitars, Marco Chiappini (Gandalfs's Project) on lead keyboards, Troy James Martin (LeeAnne Savage) on bass and Zoltan Cs'rsz Jr. (The Flower Kings & Karmakanic) on drums and it's a conceptual album.

Unfortunatelly, Blake Carpenter had chosen a poor theme to write about. Not that the King Arthur story is not rich and full of details, because it is. But how many conceptual albums with this theme have been recorded since the most famous one by Rick Wakeman in 1975?

I can understand the passion of a musician that becomes the final procuct (in this case a CD), but is so clich' when you look at the final material and the tracklist: 'Merlin', 'Lady Of The Lake', 'Excalibur', 'Camelot', etc. The Road To Avalon (2012) is wrapped in a beautiful digipack with art by Ed Unitsky (The Tangent, The Flower Kings, Guy Manning, Unitopia, Moongarden and many others) but I cannot say the same about the pictures of the band, which are poor, softly speaking, and again, full of clich's with the band dressed in medieval gear with swords and all.

Musically speaking The Minstrel's Ghost and The Road To Avalon (2012) are linked to Neo Prog in some way. Saying that you'll know that keyboards and guitars are the rulers here. You have a lot of nice moments with Marco Chiappini keyboards and several interesting moments with Colin Tench guitars. But when it comes to the basses and drums case they are very often forgotten.

The album production, by Blake himself, is weird and poor. The album is divided into two parts: The Design and The Life and it's like two completely different albums when it comes to production. The former seems to be dead and has no shine at all, and the latter is live and full of sound. Zoltan Cs'rsz Jr. is a good drummer, but here you can barely hear him, his drums are so in the background in the first part of the album that you can only hear the snare, a little bit of the hit-hat and occasional plates. Troy James Martin basses play their part nicely but too low in most of the album and mainly only following melodies without any really clever lines. On top of everything we have Blake Carpenter vocals, which for me, don't work at all. He doesn't really have a good singing voice. The Part I is a bit dull for me. We have some nice moments here and there with vocalizations and some good songs like 'Excalibur', but all in all it doesn't convince. The part II is a bit better, in sound quality and with compositions. It starts very well with 'A Love Betrayed' and its Pink Floydian style. Here the instruments are alive and right on your face. 'The Son' is a bit heavier and it's one of the best tracks.

The Road To Avalon (2012) span over 60 minutes which is an ok running time for a CD. But if you count the Bonus track that carries the name of the album and its almost 16 minutes long the album jumps to 76 minutes which is way too much for this kind of Prog.

All in all, it's an ok album, but lacks in a good production, originality and unity. Too many highs and lows that makes the listening really tiring.

As you may have guess from the title, this is a concept album about the myth of King Arthur and his return to save his country should they need him. Mainly the work of Blake Carpenter who plays keyboards and guitar and provides most of the vocals, backed up by Colin Tench of BunChakeze and Zoltan Csorsz of The Flower Kings fame, amongst others.

The CD itself features artwork by Ed Unitsky of The Tangent fame and it is beautifully done, despite the unfortunate mispelling of Camelot in the track listing.

But what of the music, I hear you ask? Well' I guess you could label it as neo-prog. It features a lot of guitar (which it has to be said is very well played) and keyboard solo work, some of which is reminiscent of earlier Pendragon work. Strangely enough, the drums sounds subdued, particularly during part 1 where it seems to consist of just a snare drum over much of it. Things pick up in part 2 with a short drum solo and this noticeably picks things up. The main Avalon "theme" is memorable and catchy and whilst the music is not as complicated as some prog can be, it is very well done, if somewhat naive in places. The production is excellent and clear.

Lyrically however, I'm afraid some of it is sixth form poetry level ("The once and future king has died today, such a wicked tragedy what more can I say?") but it does tell the story as intended, unfortunately this is the kind of concept work that prog has sadly been mocked for in the past.

Overall though this is an enjoyable album. Whilst nothing ground-breaking it should appeal to fans of neo-prog and similar albums such as Rick Wakeman's concept works and The Jabberwocky. As I said, the instrumental work, particularly the guitar, is excellent and I look forward to hearing more from Blake Carpenter.

I got this CD several weeks ago and I´ve been listening to its music since. I had a hard time to write this review, for the music here is quite deceiving (in a good way). As you might have guessed by its title, it´s another concept album about the myth of king Arthur. It´s interesting of how many artists have done concept albums about the most famous version of arthur´s story that came during the medieval era (Rick Wakeman, The Kinks and Gary Hughes are the ones that spring in mind now). This time this is done by american writer, singer and multi instrumentalist Blake Carpenter, helped out by excellent musicians like Corvus Stone´s Colin Trench on lead guitar and ex Flower Kings drummer extraordinaire Zoltan Czorsz. Unlike such ambitious projects, this one has the band (Carpenter, Trench and Czorsz plus keyboards player Marco Chiappini and bassist Troy James Martin) playing on all tracks and, quite surprisingly, there are no guests at all.

Upon listening to this CD I was struck by the fine melodies and the overall mellow sound of it all, instead of the expected bombastic epic. In fact during some time I thought the whole work sounded bland and too low key for my taste. However, after a few spins it dawned to me those several subleties that won me over in the end. The Road To Avalon reminds me of those records made around the mid 70´s where several acts used their virtuosity for the music´s sake, rather than to just showing off their technique. So if you´re looking for long solos, spaced out jams,or anything zany for that matter, I suggest you look somewhere else. However, if you like well crafted songs with terrific, but discreet perfomances and elegant arrangements, this is something you should not miss at all. It´s really amazing how Blake & co made such a tapestry pf sounds that really needs atention to get some excellent guitar and keyboards lines all over the tracks. I know that progressive music is no easy listening stuff, but this CD can be taken for granted beecause it sounds deceptively simple at first. I especially liked Tench´s tasteful and melodic solos: short, very well done and using great timbres. A true mark of a great musician. There are no fillers to be found on the whole disc and I always find the flow of the songs very well done. There are no lows either, with all the tracks showing high quality. It´s hard to point a highlight since the quality is so even. I can only mention the instrumental opener, The Journey Begins..., as a personal favorite of mine.

My only gripe with this record are the vocals: Blake Carpenter has a nice, warm voice that is alright, but nothing special and nowhere near the instrumental competence of all involved. It was expected at least to have more than one singer for the colorful set of characters that appear through the story of Arthur´s rise and fall. And, at 76 minutes of running time, his voice gets a little boring after a while. Nothing that spoils the work, of course. He sings with passion and conviction on several ocasions, which compensantes for his lack of range. I still think this epic would have benefited a lot with the help of some strong and varied voices, but that´s just my opinion.

With the help of a crystal clear production, a superb artwork and fine songwriting, this is surely one of the best surprises I got from the year of 2012. Highly recommend for the ones (like me) who still think that good melodies in prog music are not only compatible but also a must!

Final rating: 4 stars.

I have the pleasure of owning a physical copy of this album courtesy of Colin Tench (Corvus Stone) who is guitarist on this project, and I have to say that as well as Corvus Stone's, the package of this CD is very good and appears to have been quite expensive for the band as it includes a nice booklet, a pictured CD and all the paintings and photos are excellent.

This is the only contact point, other than the concept with the famous Wakeman's album. The Minstrel's Road To Avalon doesn't pass by a philarmonic orchestra and a chamber choir. The whole album is played by a standard lineup (drums, bass, guitars and keys) and tries to be rock more than symphonic.

Of course, like most of the concept albums there are "circularities": pieces of songs which are recurring, sometimes too often, maybe. The album is structured like a vinyl, a thing that's starting to be frequent enough, with two "macro" parts made each of several songs, plus a bonus track which contains the recurring piece of song which I have mentioned above.

Regardless the musicianship which is above the average, I have to confess that I don't like the opener too much. I understand that an ouverture is made of small parts of the following suite tied together in order to provide the crowd with an anticipation of what is coming. At least in the opera it's so, but in this case we have to wait about 6 minutes before the excellent guitar solo arrives. The sound of the keyboards doesn't sound good enough to me, however the second half of the ouverture is better than the first. Be patient.

The main theme, the recurring one, comes just after the ouverture. The chorus is nice but it will be repeated several times, including the bonus track so at the end one can get tired of it, but as in all the good concept albums/suites the story starts with no solution of continuity: after the main theme, Merlin is the first character to be introduced. My mind goes to the omonimous album by the Dutch Kayak. The major chords and the slow rock atmospheres are quite similar even with the differences due to the different backgrounds: The Minstrel's Ghost is an American band and this can be clearly heard.

"The Lady Of The Lake" is, if we can call it so, one of the most psychedelic moments of the legend, full of magic and wizardry. The guitar solo accompanied by a 12 strings acoustic guitar fits well in it. What I have called "the live sound" of the Corvus Stone album is partially present in this track.

"Excalibur" proceeds on this line. Light rock with keyboards in foreground, then there's the first reprise of Avalon which closes the "Side A" this version is the best of the four in the album.

Side B opens in Camelot. People's voices and what seems a medieval tournament, but on the applause instead of a fanfare there's an excellent drums solo. The rest is a good song, but again I see no minstrels nor ghosts in this music.

Now Guinevere betrays Arthur, we all know the story. The track begins with a dialog, likley Lancelot and Guinevere. The rhythmless bluesy mood is between the intro of Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Blade Runner Blues. The fretless bass sounds a bit 80s and when the vocals arrive I hear echoes of Camel. Surely, it's the best track of the album

"The Son" brings in some more rock. It's probably because I like Colin's touch, but it's when the guitar is in foreground that the album deserves more.

After the last reprise of Avalon, and I have to say that the three Avalon's are different enough one from each other, we arrive at "La Morte D'Arthur" (Arthur's Death in French). The keboards remind again to the main theme, but it's the acoustic guitar that makes the work here. The song is good in its entirety. This is where the vocals work better.

"The End" is an accelerated version of the previous song's coda and a coda to the album.

After three "Avalon"'s the fourth is a 15 minutes song, almost an epic. Not bad but we have already had other 15 minutes of that.

I'm aware that my review has been a bit negative, but looking at the bads is sometimes easier and more immediate than looking at the goods. There are goods in this album, so my rating is not totally negative. The last time I have listened to it I was driving and my sensations haven 't been bad.

It can have three stars