TEN COMMANDMENTS

Salamander is a forgotten british proto prog band who release a single album in 1971 named Ten commandements. Obviosly the story behind this album is about those ten commandments and God. At first listen might be not impressed by this band, the full brass orientation with some keys added make Salamander to be not really an exciting band. After somelistens I was not necesarly overblown by them , but nevertheless a good album, who desearves a better view. In places they remind me of Moody Blues, specialy the key passages , but less symphonic and more towards proto prog. The brass elements are sometimes like later Chicago albums, but not bad at all. To many this album is less convincing like other releases from that period, of course, musicaly speaking they are far from Genesis, Yes or other monsters from early '70's , but Salamander manage to creat something good and most of the time enjoyble. The voice of Dave Titley is very strong for this kind of music and fits like a glove here. Salamander for some reasons never gain any big attention with this single album, the music is not bad, maybe is to mellow and to cheesy sometimes, but an ok album to me. Orchestrations are very well written and gives a special feeling when you listen for ex the opening track Prélude Incorporing He's My God's - among the best pieces from here if not the best. 3 stars for those ten commandments, nothing special, but far from being a bad album. My CD is relased on Progressive Line and shows once again that no matter how many re released versions are from one album, some of the bands are doomed to go into oblivion.