RUSSIAN ROULETTE

I tried to understand why a musician like Jurgen Fritz (leader of a very good progressive rock band, that triumvirat really was!) comit artistic suicide!! This album is a joke! and nobody deserves it (a truly bad one!). Simply horrible in it´s entire concept (cover, production, composition, musical ideas, performance and sound). If you don´t know Triumvirat, please, try any of the first four albums... And you´ll listen a deep interesting Prog rock band in an usual trio (ELP) format. The POMPeii album is also very good (with guest appearances of Passport egressed musicians - Curt Cress (Drums) and Dieter Pietereit (Bass) some of the songs in this album are amongst the best of the band (Earthquake, Viva Pompeii, Vesuvius), awesome keyboards, enhanced by a specially spiced drum/bass duo - Passport courtesy in this case!!!

I swear I thought that I got the wrong CD. That sound could not come from Triumvirat. Well, for someone who once sang "I sold my soul to rock and roll I never got it back", it seems he finally got it... I understand Jürgen Fritz had the right of changing his style as many time as he felt this 20 years, but there was no need to use the name of Triumvirat on this album. It would be fair for the old band lovers to hear something like "The New Jürgen Fritz Band". For a band like that I could even give a better rating. For Triumvirat, it is only Bad.

I would give this album zero stars if it was possible. "Russian Roulette" is very poor in all senses: an awful cover, mediocre songs and an overall weak performance by all musicians (some of them are great instrumentists, but you'll never say it when you listen to this album). Arno Steffen is the worst singer I've ever heard in a progressive rock album. Jürgen Fritz seems to have lost his ability not only to play, but to write songs. I like Triumvirat, even if it is by all means an ELP clone. They made some interesting albums at the mid-seventies; this album, in the other hand, is uninspired and frustrating - no wonder why they called a day after its release. Buy "Russian Roulette" at your own risk.

This has got to be one of the worst albums by a good prog band going commercial. When listening you don't even have a hint that this is Triumvirat. They should have just changed their name. "A La Carte" is even brilliant compared to this. 0 stars, not even for completionists.

I believe that it is not so often that an album gets the same consensus.

Absolutely awful.

Like almost every fellow reviewer, I just have wished that the zero star rating would have been available. The band turned already to a completely different genre with their previous album "A La Carte" but they really reached their very lows here.

There is absolutely not a single track which is worth listening (I really deserve a medal to have endured this). Not a single prog moment of course (but it was already the case with "A La Carte").

It is very difficult to identify the worst song here. I can't do it. Any of them could deserve this "honour". Is it the funky "Cooler", the boring "Games", the stupid "Come With Me", the disgusting reggae-ish "The Ballad of Rudy Törner" ?

Like the titled "Rien Ne Va Plus", it is really painful to hear how low a band can go. Isn't there anybody in their management to tell them : stop guys ? I don't understand.

Anyway, as one star is the minimum rating on PA, it fully applies to this absolutely dreadful album.

NEVER listen to this one. You will do yourself a favour.

Honestly, I could never believe the once great prog musician and songwriter Jürgen Fritz could release an album worse than A La Carte. But, alas, he did. To call it a Triumvirat CD is an insult to the memory of one of Germany´s best prog groups of the 70´s. I took a long time to borrow this CD to review it. Granted: I was warned by everyone who did. But still I wanted to hear it to believe.

It´s really the end of line. Arno Steffen is the worst singer this band ever had, really awful. Of course the musicians involved are great, but the whole concept (or lack of it), the very poor songwriting and the mediocre arrangements blow it all. I can´t believe the once great songwriter Jurgen Fritz could, or even be allowed to, deliver such piece of crap. I mean, what happened to HIM? Did he ever think he could bastardise Triumvirat´s name to get a few bucks and get away with it?

Not even an average pop album, it does not have a single track that can save the CD from being a total failure. Fortunately this would be the last nail to the coffin. It´s the only good thing I can say about Russian Roulette: it was the last. An end that gave the fans a relieving feeling instead of one of sorrow.

NOT worth even for completionists. Zero stars. To avoid at all costs.

10 000 polar bears would never venture into a record shop to buy this album. Therefore; 10 000 polar bears cannot be wrong.

Triumvirat really morphed into a joke on this album. Gone is the ELP copycat and in comes a band who really only plays commercial rock with some Supertramp influences. That is; when Supertramp was really, really bad and obese on money and Colombian farming products. But this album is not as good as they were on their worst.

The music on Russian Roulette (strange...... Accept's flop album was also named Russian Roulette....... better stay away from this type of activity) is piano based pop with a lot of Las Vegas written all over it. The quality is really really abysmal and this album is an uber-turkey. The one near the top of the sofa, admiring the view of the ground one meter below.

The vocals deserves a special mentioning though. It is something that will replace the chasing cat in my nightmares, I believe. Utter, utter abysmal vocals. Is there a bullet in the chamber ?

1 star

From the start, Russian Roulette is nothing like the classic Triumvirat music period that fans knew and loved, and many felt it was a let down because of that. My appreciation and understanding of this record has grown over what was a pretty long span of time. I initially made an error in only judging this album by those the band made previously, and now, after years later, i finally fully realize how much of a mistake that really was.

For years, i refused to give Russian Roulette a second chance, but on re-evaluating this record totally as it's own entity, my view and perspective have changed-it doesn't deserve the bum rap given by so many. The songs are catchy, but not commercial to the point of irritatingly so, and there is diversity here, which creates different moods, and that is actually refreshing. "Party Life" is an infectious song that flirts with an almost new wave/punkish feel and is quite well done. There is the reggae tinged "The Ballad Of Rudy Torner", the upbeat rockers like "Cooler" and "Were Rich On What We've Got", and the more mellow "Rien ne vas Plus"

Different songs for different moods-it is obvious in this musical experiment straying so far from what was tried and true for the band, Triumvirat had no one track mind. And a couple of musical guests from the excellent group Toto, Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro, help to diversify and shake things up, creatively.

When guitar player/singer Helmut Koellen left the band after the "Spartacus" tour in 1975, things were never the same, never on the same quality level-they couldn't be, with Koellen absent.

But 1980 was not like 1975, for any band, musically. I have finally come to the conclusion that Russian Roulette should not be ignored because of that. For me, you might say it's uniqueness and diversity has enabled me to grow to like it, even though the music is so far from Triumvirat's best from the early years. I conclude that this is not a one star wasted effort-i give it three.

Triumvirat were playing Russian Roulette with their fans. Like an idiot I went out and paid my hard earned money for this thing that crawled out of a sewer. Even ABBA fans would run away from this disaster with their tails curled. I'm just wondering if there's anybody else on the planet who bought this atrocity who didn't use it for skeet shooting. Maybe Jurgen had too many chicks that he could handle and he said " down girls, down girls I'm trying to make an intelligent romantic album, merci".

Why are there hamburgers on the cover and no guns. I would expect a graphic photo of a guy lying with his brains blown out by a .38 Special. Looking not unlike a spaghetti buffet after being attacked by 100 famished Italians. And then Jurgen has this dumb song with steel drums. He thinks he's Jamacian. Maybe he had some Jamacian chicks who did him some weird sexual favours.

If I were to make an album called Russian Roulette I would have hired some assasins from the Russian mob. I would accompany them on some hits and made a heavy metal album out of it that would make Norwegian Black metal sound like Perry Como on Qualudes.

OK have I reached 75 words yet? I'm actually going to give this dishrag 5 stars for badness. It just can't get any worse than this. I can't believe I just listened to the whole thing.

I will always give releases multiple listening before passing judgment on whether I like a disc or not. I tried with this one...it's not the Triumvirat that we have come to love. Gone are all progressive elements of anything they have done previously. It sounds like Randy Newman meets the Bay City Rollers meets Dean Friedman. I keep wishing the next track will be better than the first...it just doesn't ever happen. Even the vocals are grating an not pleasant at all (just listen to Party Life). I will never listen to this again, it is not the great Triumvirat of Illusions or Spartacus, something went terribly wrong. I need to go back and listen to anything else they have done, I cannot leave this as the last Triumvirat I listened to today.

This could easily be the worst album ever made. Some great progartists have released really nice pop/new wave albums (Mike Oldfield, Yes, Genesis, Rush). Even Camel, Renaissance and Caravan were enjoyable in their more pop-oriented phase. Because the stayed somehow true to their own sound.

But this? There's nothing that reminds the listener to the Triumvirat-sound. This is a whole new band. And a bad band. I like pop, I like new wave and synthpop. But this is not even a good pop-album. I wonder if new-wave-fans in the 80's were even aware of this album. Prog-enthousiasts rate this album really low. I only wonder what punkers and newwavers think of this disaster.

Well... What we have here is an album that shouldn't have been allowed to exist, a total shame in all genres you can imagine. I am a prog fan and a post punk and new wave fan as well and I can say it's a trash in any style they try - without success - to imitate. I remember I couldn't even believe in what my ears were hearing when I bought the LP back in my teen days and played it for the first time. Just avoid it or try to listen for some laughs, but even as joke it's really bad.

Review Nº 629

Triumvirat was a progressive symphonic rock band formed in Cologne, Germany in 1969, around the keyboardist Jürgen Fritz. Triumvirat is the Latin word for a triumvirate, a grouping of three powerful men usually connoted with the famous triumvirates of the Ancient Roman Empire. However, in this case, the word is referred to a simple musical trio.

The founding members of the group were the keyboardist and musical composer Hans-Jürgen Fritz, later simply known as Jürgen Fritz, the bassist Werner "Dick" Frangenberg and the drummer and lyricist Hans Bathelt. During their earlier days, Triumvirat initially performed Top 40 songs at local venues in Cologne. The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer heavily influenced Triumvirat's musical direction, unlike almost all of their Teutonic compatriots that founded the krautrock musical style. The group envisioned a more progressive rock music style as it came mainly from England, instead pieces of music with detuned guitars and ghastly singing. In fact, at the height of their musical career during the 70's progressive classic rock era, Triumvirat was often referred to as the "German Emerson, Lake & Palmer clone", with some injustice because they were more and better than that, due to Fritz classical virtuosity on keyboards and synthesizers, in the same vein of Keith Emerson and his musical style. They made some really amazing things, really.

Triumvirat subsequently produced modestly some very successful albums during the early to the middle of 70's. The band had numerous changes in their line up but always was headed by Fritz. Their debut studio album "Mediterranean Tales: Across The Waters" released in 1972, was however dismissed by the media as a second rate infusion of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and also their follow second studio album "Illusions On A Double Dimple" released in 1974, met in Germany only a moderate response. In the following years, the band released their third studio album "Spartacus" in 1975 and their fourth studio album "Old Loves Die hard" in 1976, their most commercial successful album. In 1977 and 1978 they released their fifth and sixth studio albums "Pompeii" and "A La Carte" respectively, and in 1980 they released their seventh and last studio album "Russian Roulette". Like other progressive rock bands of the 70's, the end came for Triumvirat with the turn of the decade, with the advent of punk and disco music. "A La Carte" and "Russian Roulette" changed drastically their usual musical progressive style, bringing new musical compositions geared to funk, reggae, disco and pop rock, as if Triumvirat was trying to adapt to the new musical tastes of that era.

The line up on "Russian Roulette" is Jürgen Fritz (piano, moog, organ, synthesizers and percussion), Arno Steffen (lead vocals), Jeff Porcaro (drums), Steve Lukather (bass and electric guitars), Tim May (electric and acoustic guitars), Robert Greenidge (steel drums), Neal Stubenhaus (bass), Pete Christlieb (saxophone and clarinet), Mike gong (electric guitar), David Hungate (bass) and Alan Estis (congas and maracas).

"Russian Roulette" followed in the footsteps of their previous studio album "A La Carte". It achieved the unthinkable by collecting an even more annoying and stylistically uninteresting collection of tunes than on the poor "A La Carte". As with its predecessor, there's absolutely no indication on it that Triumvirat was once a very accomplished symphonic progressive rock band, or that Jürgen Fritz was one of the finest keyboard masters of the 70's. Tediously, generic pop rock is what they made, this time with new wave overtones and even with a reggae track. The album opens with melodic, weak Rock'n'Roll and Pop numbers in the style of Status Quo and Toto. I will admit to linking a couple of tracks such as "You Can't Catch Me", "We're Rich On What We Go" and "Twice" are all decent rock songs. Yet, for every bearable song there's a complete abominations, most notable are the funky effects of "Cooler" or the unthinkable and inadmissible reggae "The Ballad Of Rudy Turner". The rest of the tracks are completely forgettable. So, "Russian Roulette" has nothing to do with prog rock, and, what is much worse, it also comes without no noteworthy ideas, really.

Conclusion: When I reviewed "A La Carte" I wrote that it was one of my biggest disillusions in the progressive rock. However, "Russian Roulette" is even worse than "A La Carte" is. The keyboard wizard Jürgen Fritz managed to make an even worse album. He could have buried the sensational progressive rock band in the 70's. This is by far the worst thing Triumvirat ever did. "A La Carte" is a real weak album but was a pop rock effort with some few honest songs. But, this album has nothing positive to offer to a Triumvirat's fan. At least it managed to do a good thing. It became to be the band's final album, so no more pain for band's fans like me. After reviewing so many albums on this site, I only gave 1 star to two albums, till now, "Giant For a Day" of Gentle Giant and "Earthbound" of King Crimson. With "Earthbound" there was a very special reason. It deals more with the sound quality of the album than with its musical quality. But, "Giant For A Day" is really a bad work. However, "Russian Roulette" is the worst of all. So, do yourself a favour stay away of it. If you never listened to it, you'll never have a bad image of the band, especially if you are a newbie with them.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)