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Moongarden - The Gates of Omega CD (album) cover

THE GATES OF OMEGA

Moongarden

 

Symphonic Prog

3.10 | 67 ratings

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Matti
Prog Reviewer
4 stars I have heard two albums by this Italian band, and this 2-CD is the better one. Many different bands/artists from Pink Floyd and Genesis (Wind & Wuthering) to Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream are mentioned in previous reviews, but I think the best comparison is made by ZowieZiggy who mentions Marbles (MARILLION). Indeed, I found a lot of Hogarth-era Marillion in this work, starting from Luca Palleschi's vocals. The hurriless atmosphere - with a nod towards ambient - where the crisp, floating keyboards have the major role and where the guitar also stays on the calmer side even when soloing is quite similar to certain works by the more recent Marillion. The vocals are rather sparse and instrumental sections are long. There's a female guest vocalist on one track (not mentioned in the album info).

As already said here, this is not an album to listen to if you want something dynamic. Even for me the whole 100 minutes of it get a bit tiresome, at least if I'm not completely in the right mood for it. Many tracks (3) stretch beyond ten minutes, and the title track is as long as 27 minutes, but it's not a rollercoaster epic in the FLOWER KINGS mold; frankly, it could be concentrated into half of its length without losing anything else but the sleepy atmosphere. Speaking of the whole album too, it tends to be quite samey in the end, as enjoyable and totally free of any irritating, worse moments it is. That's why I'm hesitating between 3 and 4 stars. But after all, the music is so enjoyable that if the only problem is the length, that shouldn't take the fourth star away. There's no rule saying that albums must always be listened from start to end, is there?

Matti | 4/5 |

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