TOUCH WOOD

The whole of the feeling being remarkably summarized during the opening and "epic" song. The vocal disenchantment is truly unbearable and a real pity. How is it possible? Lots of German bands were having such a problem, but usually Dutch bands could overcome this handicap. But not "Mangrove" apparently.

An average singer would have been more than welcome and this album would definitely have scored higher. But, as such it is difficult to rate it in the high spheres. One could have hoped a more instrumental work, but no: vocals are everywhere and are really painful. Now, when you listen to "Vicious Circle", there is nothing good nor creative to expect. Just a poor "Genesis" clone. Would you believe, with a debut album in 2004?

This pastiche album is quite painful to listen to from start to finish. And I'm not of the most purists from this great site. But still: this band hasn't an inch of personality.

I am quite perplexed with the music performed: I was quite keen on listening and reviewing the band when I saw that it was referenced within the symphonic style and that it has received quite high scores. But these were much too optimistic IMHHO. To listen to the weak "Penelope" put all things into perspective. Press next, really.

The band decided to release a long album (I wonder why) and it dramatically failed. It is frankly poles apart. The worse is probably being reached during "Help Me". These are the only words I can possibly think of while listening to this track. Awful.

And when I heard from the lyrics from "Wizard Of Tunes" the sentence "I don't believe in miracles" I was just voiceless. For sure, miracles didn't show up. Some good guitar though for a few seconds. But is this enough??? Of course there is also a rip off from "Watcher". Stop please! This is enough!

Actually, I really wonder why this band has been placed into the symphonic genre while they fully belong to the neo one. I'll dig more into this with their later releases.

Weak. Pale copy. Inexpressive. Three out of ten but downgraded to one star. The worse neo prog you can expect. is featured in this album.

And I needed more than four hundred words to tell you this!!! Unbelievable.

Share this MANGROVE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to ZowieZiggy
• Report this review (#254448)
• Buy MANGROVE music online with PA partners
• Show all MANGROVE MP3/Stream
• Go to MANGROVE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Touch Wood page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for MANGROVE related discussions