EARTHLY PARADISE

This band from Germany is a rare one in the enormous field of progressive music, but their debut album-Earthly Paradise-is almost a landmark of symphonic progressive rock music. This album was for me, indeed, a pleasant surprise.

The music consists in high use of analogue synthesisers and Mellotron all sustained by strong rhythmic parts(the music is very similar to Eloy, Genesis and even Tangerine Dream). The first two songs is with female voice (a very beautiful and representative one). The last three songs are instrumental, and for me the last two, perhaps Mitternachtstraum is the best (excellent keyboard parts). Basically, the result is very good. I must say that the lack of electric and acoustic guitars didn't create a hole in the compositions themselves... the songs are purely based on drums and keyboards and all you can do is to realize the great music the five members did in 32 minutes (this is my single regret...they could add a few songs on it...). Anyway, you should take a trip to the Earthly Paradise...

It's hard to rate 5 stars, but I still recommend this album as an excellent one for a progressive music lover!