OBLIVION DAYS

Excellent band this - another great find during 2005 - well worth checking out. The opening track is 'Dark Water-part 3'. The previous 2 parts are on the album Brutal Architecture. It is a doomy, synth-laden instrumental opener which sets the tone and segues neatly into 'Aqua Vitae', which is a fairly good track with elements of bands like Ayreon and the Beatles (!). 'Oblivion Days' follows at a steady beat and features the immortal lyric "This time next year, we'll be looking at our yesterdays" - apart from this epic piece of logic the track has some excellent playing, particularly synthesiser. Next up is 'Archimedes' - this quickly kicks up a pretty funky beat and allows everyone to showcase their instrumental skills, but it is the keyboards that do it for me everytime. 'Banquo's Ghost' follows - Banquo being one of the characters from Macbeth - literature lesson over. It has some nice synth-doodling, and organ features - not terribly memorable though.'Space-1999' comes next - (???) - the album was released in 1999 and ACTUALLY this IS the theme from that seminal sci-fi programme. Now I loved that show but I am mega surprised to see it on an album !! Anyway. The ten minute 'Escape' comes next. It starts with an acoustic feel but quickly picks up speed. It is quite a catchy song, but not a prog epic. 'Break the Silence' is a track which goes nowhere particularly fast, it has one good thing going for it - it leads to the real reason for buying this album - 'Dark Water - part 4'. Now THIS is the real deal. Burn a disc with parts 1-4 together and you have a fantastic mini-album!! It has some phenomenal synth runs and a Holst-sounding background (Mars:the bringer of War?). Absolutely superb. I guarantee you will want to play this track again immediately after hearing it. That may not be the case with every track - but I'm basing my review score on what you will have if you have 'Dark Water' parts 1-4 together.