MARBURG

This album IS a masterpiece of heavy, complex, unusual, highly imaginative, and powerful organ dominated heavy symphonic progressive rock. Unlike what some write ups say this is not at all mostly instrumental. The vocalist (Rudolph Schon) is prominent on every track except the lovely instrumental "Moldau" and his raving, manic, strong, and commanding approach is awesome. He sounds like no other vocalist I can think of and when there are harmonies it is really impressive. Aside from the astounding first track there is no guitar here, and one of the things to truly make Pell Mell's first album exotic is the violin and organ dominated instrumentation. The songs are fantastic- full of atmosphere, energy, contrast, and imagination. When I am hearing the longest tracks on this album none of them drag a bit and there is constantly something new and different going on. Classical influences are prevalent, but I would disagree that the band are ripping off famous classical composers. I see the few very easy to pinpoint references as a homage rather than a rip off. I have trouble understanding the lyrics to a lot of these songs. They are in English, but heavily accented and rather strange! Perfect example is "City Monster." The title alone tells you these guys were a little bit different in their very European (namely German) take on progressive symphonic rock. The musicianship here is something to be marvelled at, but ultimately it is the raw and unusual vocals that make this album so great when they are combined with how good each individual player in the five piece band is. The drummer is excellent, and so is the bass player. The organist and violin player are never self indulgent and always exciting. For long tracks full of symphonic overtones and heavy psychedelic rock lurking in the shadows this is one of the best albums I've heard. Every track is outstanding (There are only 5), and this one is highly reccomended!