GHOST

"The best album Genesis never made." Huh. Yes, there are lot of things pointing directly at Nursery Cryme/Foxtrot era, but also they miss MANY things that Genesis had at that time: memorable compositions, sense of drama that made their epic songs so powerful, sensitivity, more varied sound in music and vocals, pastoral feel, and so on.

This album (or this Italian band in general, if their all albums are like this one) offers thick and, to some degree, depressing prog rock loaded with Mellotron, heavy guitars and a *very* Peter Gabriel sounding front man Simone Rossetti who writes the music and also plays flute (where he did that idea from? Ha ha). They sound so much like (certain heavier moments of) old Genesis that it's difficult - for a person who almost grew up into prog with albums of Genesis among others - not to be intrigued by it at all. But apart from that, I wasn't very impressed. And isn't the world full of Genesis-clones? One quite similar with The Watch is CITIZEN CAIN, especially on the stuffy Gabriel-esque vocals (and DISCIPLINE, but their prior influence is VDGG instead of Genesis).

Let's face it: I probably never would have become a Genesis-listener if their music was like this and nothing else. And if I wasn't today so strongly on an ever-expanding prog journey turning every available stone on the way that seems even slightly interesting, I wouldn't really care about this music. Generally they are a bit too heavy for my taste but I must agree that they do well what they are doing. So, by all means, give it a try: many reviewers have praised this heavily.