SPARTACUS

"Spartacus" is a wonderful full on excessive symphonic prog album from masters of German 70s prog, Triumvirat. It begins with a terrific instrumental section and then the voice of Helmut Köllen comes in on the second track sounding clear and distinct, enhancing the music. The School Of Instant Pain is absolutely brilliant, even featuring a massive drum solo and the everpresent Hammond stabs very similar to Emerson. It is broken in to a variety of sections: a) Proclamation, b) The gladiator's song, c) Roman entertainment, d) The battle.

Next on The Walls Of Doom there is a jaunty little instrumental on keyboard motif, with breaks in the music including wild drums and some very nice basslines. This is an excellent piece of music with some odd time signature changes and very original approach to the medium, not really an ELP clone as they have been accused. There is enough originality on offer to satiate any prog palate.

The next track The Deadly Dream of Freedom is balladic and sweetly sung, not my favourite style but it has a lovely melody though more radio friendly than their usual material, not that this is a problem as it kind of breaks up the hyper prog swashbuckling.

Then it's on to a mental instrumental The Hazy Shades of Dawn, and its back to prog excess and it is fantastic. This tune is memorable, majestic, grand, Emerson like in places, but has so many twists and turns it is astounding. The tune is a march really with some missing beats in the phrases. I like the descending parts that build with each instrument. The drums of Hans Bathelt are simply virtuoso on this. I am reminded of ELP's Trilogy with this.

The foreboding menace of Hammond organ and drums rising to a crescendo are a true feature of the showstopper, The Burning Sword of Capua. This is a tremendous instrumental with Jürgen Fritz allowed to blaze away with fire and dynamism on keyboards. It is short but it is brilliant.

The sweet vocals of Helmut that are gentle and flowing return on The Sweetest Sound Of Liberty. Once again a real breakaway from the more proggy instrumentals preceding it, but a pleasant enough song, reminding me of the way Lake's ballads on ELP albums were always present.

A spacey effect begins the next track, The March To The Eternal City, which is the first lengthy track at 8:46, on the EMI release, and it is broken into 3 sections: Dusty Road, is a quaint song with some intriguing lyrics about Spartacus, who "has come to kill". It gains tempo with a herald of drums and clean synth flourishes on Italian Improvisation section. There are some excellent keyboard swells on this, and it is a rather lengthy instrumental but never lost my interest. The song ends with the third section, First Success, which is kind of a return to the intro melody.

Spartacus is a good way to end the album, in 3 sections again, The Superior Force of Rome, with softer vocals and then it breaks out into a frenzy of Hammond, sounding as fast as Tarkus. Perhaps too fast as it is rather amusing how zany this is. It even has an off kilter chorus, "no one comes near", and then the keyboard freak out continues, with some frenetic honky tonk piano and those Karn Evil 9 siren sounds. A Broken Dream is the second section which is basically very fast piano, a real tour de force of speed triggerfinger playing. The Finale sounds like a finale funnily enough, majestic and bombastic but delightfully so.

The original album ended there but it is nice on the reissue to get 2 bonus tracks consisting of The Capital Of Power (live), and Showstopper (previously unreleased). The live track is an intriguing version of The Capital Of Power, opening their show, and it is excellent quality wanting me to hear more of this concert. The instrumental is one of their best and is highlights the talents of bassist Helmut in particular. The unreleased track Showstopper, is a curious oddity, a rather fast paced song focussing on the keyboard finesse of Fritz. Helmut's vocals are psychedelic sounding, very good but incomparable to the rest of the album, very different. The instrumental section sounds similar to other parts of the "Spartacus" album. But this is no throwaway and may cause one to wonder why it was never released.

Overall I haven't heard a bad album from Triumvirat and this is certainly one of their best, excellent quality prog, along with the incredible Illusions On A Double Dimple.

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