GHOST

Now and then a new artist or band takes you by surprise. I was totally astounded by the Italian band The WATCH's debut album "Ghost". Actually I don't know whether The WATCH is a new band or not, because the vocalist Simone Rossetti were singing in a band called The NIGHT WATCH before, but he's the only connection between the two bands.

I was expecting an album with reminiscences to KING CRIMSON, but I immediately found out that the music is very similar to Peter GAGRIEL-era GENESIS with lots of magnificent bombastic Mellotron. You can't help thinking about GENESIS albums such as "Trespass" (1970), "Nursery Cryme" (1971), "Foxtrot" (1972), "Selling England By The Pound" (1973) and songs such as "Firth Of Fifth", "Musical Box" and "Watcher Of The Skies" when hearing The WATCH. The similarity doesn't only lie in the music, because Simone Rossetti's voice is very close to Peter GABRIEL. GENESIS is actually the only band I come to think about, but perhaps there are some reminiscences to CATHEDRAL, KING CRIMSON, MARILLION, SPOCK'S BEARD and ÄNGLAGARD too.

Although the very obvious GENESIS references they're far from GENESIS clones because of the magnificent compositions that they're delivering. Now I have to try to get hold of a proper copy of this album, because my CDR advance copy has some dropouts on the last track. Italy has always been one of the leading lands of Progressive Rock, and now they can add another classic to the list. This might be the best album of the year 2001. Highly recommended!