ARKANA

This Italian neo band is a pretty strange bunch of guys. I remember I witnessed them live over here on a Dutch prog festival in the nineties. I recall a gloomy sounding performance but what struck me most was the short conversation between the band members right in the middle of the gig and this didn't last for a couple of seconds but for over a minute ! They obviously couldn't make up their mind about the song they were going to play. Funny experience but it also proves this band wasn't in the highest rankings of professionalism at that time. I wasn't really impressed about their overall performance either so I never really dug into them.

One day though I noticed a very high average rating for this particular album and decided to go for it. After many listening experiences by now I'm not quite surprised about my ultimate feeling regarding the band and this album. I detect what I already witnessed on the live performance, gloomy and expanded songs and almost depressing sounding music is what I find on this near masterpiece according to several people.

I'm afraid I don't agree with the majority but that's also a matter of taste obviously. I do hear quality of compositions but I also hear wining vocals and to be honest I'm only occasionally impressed with instrumental bits and pieces. Asgard has some similarity with their fellow countrymen Tale Cue and Dutch neoband Cliffhanger. Both these bands also like to write sinister music and create depressing moods with their listeners. If you are intrigued by this you should certainly go for this album. It's a lengthy one lasting almost 5 quarters of an hour but if you're not bothered by that I'd say: give it a try ! 3 stars is my personal verdict.