THE FADING GHOSTS OF TWILIGHT

Boy, this cd held so much promise! It's filled with beautiful artwork inside and out; even the fancy calligraphy of the liner notes reminds me somewhat of Genesis' Trick of the Tail artwork. The vocalist for the fantastic Unifaun debut (Nad Sylvan) teaming up with the multi-talented Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings? Plus some TFK guys joining in on a couple of songs, as well as Crimson's Pat Mastelotto? This cd just HAS to friggin' cook, right?

Thud.

Despite some moments of greatness here and there, this cd overall just never did anything for me. Part of the problem lies in the first half of the album where they parked 3 of the least interesting, blandest songs (tracks 2, 3 & 5 - "The Unwanted Brother", "Afternoon Skies" and "Jesus on the Barricades"). And as much as I really dug Sylvan's vocals on the Unifaun album, he sounds old, tired and downright gravelly on this one. Stolt's vocals actually sound decent.

I realize that Stolt was going for a little folkier prog sound on this originally, so I've tried (really) to slow it down and enjoy this. But the lyrics ain't that great, and their awkwardness actually ruins a couple of the songs ("Bomb Inside Her Heart" - really?!). There is a fairly strong Genesis feel to many of these songs, and an overall reference to religious themes that is a bit more overt than Stolt typically displays in his TFK stuff. Fine. But where's the zing?

Alas, all is NOT lost. I think they should have started the cd with track 4, "Heroes & Beacons" - just a fantastic song in the best Flower Kings style with great guitar and keyboard lines. "A Soldier's Tale" is another fine one, though it could have ended 4 minutes earlier. In fact, all the tracks from 6 to 10 are pretty good, and I noticed some nice guitar touches, mellotron and vocal harmonies in spots. Then they chose to close the cd with two lesser tunes again; leaves a bad taste in the mouth....

It's a long cd - 12 tracks dragged across nearly 78 minutes of music. You just won't find yourself enjoying the whole thing. And I'm a huge Roine Stolt supporter.