MYTH OF THE CHRYSAVIDES

Many people see the 80's as the lost decade, I used to think like this until a few years when I discovered some excellent bands from the era, but in general terms, we are talking about my least favorite decade. But once in a while I find a great band that breaks the rules, avoiding the exclusivity of GENESIS or PINK FLOYD references behind and creating a new fusion of sounds of styles that sound fresh and kept our hopes of a rebirth alive. Sadly EZRA WINSTON is one not of them.

Their debut Myth of the Chrysavides is a very uneven album, with excellent moments but most of their tracks are terribly predictable and even boring. It's obvious for me that they try to escape from the Neo Prog parameters and even when the vocals and some keyboard solos sound very close to Pendragon, their style is much richer, they constantly use dissonances, plus some Jazz Fusion touches, make the band unusual for any Italian group, normally more focussed in the gentle melodies and pastoral passages, sadly, they are not able top keep the high level for long periods of time.

Myth of the Chrysavides. is divided in four tracks:

"The Bird and the First Flight" works as an introduction for the two epics that occupy 80% of the album, this track begins soft and melodic mainly with flute and keyboards, somehow reminds me of ANTHONY PHILLIP'S, even when gets faster and with lush keyboards as the time passes, it's obvious we are before an introductory track.

"The Journey in the world Above" misleads at the start with a soft and even pastoral entrance, but as soon as the keyboards join, it's obvious this band tries to do something different, the Jazz elements are notorious, the problem begins with the vocals that are too bland for my taste not forgetting the fact that Italian bands and English language, don't make a good combination. To make it worst, all the rich blend of the start morphs into a soporiferous ballad.

The second epic "The Journey in the World Bellow" has some amazing passages, but again suffers of the same problem as the other songs, it's too uneven, after vivid passages with amazing synth solos supported by a solid rhythm section and a beautiful classic guitar, they return to the narcotic ballads that induce to a good sleep. Even when the acoustic guitar and the GENESIS inspired passages are quite nice, the song is completely inconsistent.

To summarize, "The Journey in the World Bellow" has more or less 9 minutes of brilliance and 9 minutes of boredom, which is sad, because we are talking about very capable musicians.

The album ends with the most solid track "The Waiting and the Knowledge", which despite being a bit repetitive, has the most brilliant passages of the record, a good closer for an average album.

As usual I suffer with the rating, and Myth of the Chrysavides places me before a real problem, they don't deserve less than 2.5 stars, but Prog Archives only admits full stars, so I have to decide the less unfair rating. Being that I gave three stars to much better albums like the ELP debut or Going for the One by YES, I have to go with two stars, recognizing that EZRA WINSTON deserve a bit more.

Just hope that their second release "Ancient Afternoons" which I recently bought is more consistent and keeps the level high all along the album.

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