THE GATES OF OMEGA

Last year I witnessed a gig by this amazing Italian progrock band. I was impressed by the performance of the singer, the wonderful keyboard sound and the varied compositions. This 2-CD is not their latest (that's RoundMidnight from 2003), it's already five years old. I took a look at the reviews on Prog Archives, the rating alternates from 1 to 5 stars, "say no more!"....

I have to mention that The Gates Of Omega is not an easy album to listen to, the climates alternate frequently from romantic, a bit melancholic progressive pop (like Nineties U2 and Peter Gabriel) to pure symphonic rock like mid-Genesis (lush keyboards, Moog Taurus bass pedals, twanging guitars and sensitive, flowing guitar soli) and even electronic music in the vein of 74-80 Tangerine Dream (hypnotizing atmospheres with floods of Mellotron and spacey synthesizer sounds), an incredible varied sound! But Moongarden also delivers fine musical ideas like choir-Mellotron waves blended with Spanish guitar runs, a beautidul piece on acoustic piano and a song featuring a sultry, exotic climate with a djembe percussie sound, soaring keyboards and the distinctive Stick bass. But my highights were the compelling, often long soli on the electric guitar and the omnipresent (sampled in my opinion) Mellotron waves, mostly choir but also flute and violin sound.

To me this 2-CD sounds as progrock to discover, I honestly don't understand my two fellow reviewers with their 1 rating: music is subjective but Moongarden has delivered a wonderful piece of music with emotion, skills and variety. It must be a blow for these musicians to read those low rated, in my opinion too subjective reviews. I won't conclude that this is an excellent addition to any progrock collection but at least this is good music, worth to check out!