CRYING OF THE WHALES

I've tried to give this quite a few spins in the CD player, but each time it comes up too short. The concept is a good one. In this case it's about our slaughter of the whales. So, it's partly an environmental and political message. The other part of this concept has to do with the warning that nature will get even with us because of our slaughtering of the whales. This is where the concept seems like it is on less solid ground, not that I am against nature for doing this. We deserve a lot of slaps on the wrist for many of our wrongdoings on this planet. I was often reminded of the Star Trek IV movie which also dealt with a similar subject.

Probably the biggest problem I have with this album is the music. Abarax is clearly inspired by Pink Floyd (the liner notes even thank them!), but they don't take a Pink Floyd-like foundation and build upon it. Instead, it sounds more like a "poor man's Pink Floyd." The music isn't interesting and it plods along at the same pace almost throughout the whole album. They did catch me with the first six minutes of the first song, but as it reached the last four minutes, they lost me. And lost me they did for the remainder of the album. What this album needs is a good kick in the pants, both musically and lyrically. In the end, it sounds amateurish.

I like the message. I thought it could have been written better, much better. The music just doesn't catch my attention and they need better "whale song" samples (like on ELO's The Whale).

Sorry, only worthy of two stars in my humble opinion.