THE IMPERIAL HOTEL

THE IMPERIAL HOTEL is the third album of the great band THE SAMURAI OF PROG,the guys have already released 2 excellent albums with cover songs!!This time,we have on this album only original compositions from the guys ,but the title track is in fact a composition of the Brit symphonic progressive band ENGLAND,from 1975!Robert Webb,the mastermind behind ENGLAND is giving here a serious hand on the new interpretation,and everything sound excellent in 2014 with a track composed almost 40 years ago!The first thing about this album is the amazing look,it's absolutelly stunning-a gorgeous digipack,with a massive 40 pages booklet conceived by Ed Unitsky and a cd which fits perfectly well inside the digipack,packed like a classic vinyl,in an envelope!The sensational artwork is breathtaking,very coloured and impressive,with great photos and all the informations about the musicians and the album !Musically speaking,we have al album of almost 1 hour of vintage prog rock,extremelly well composed and masterfully played by amazing musicians!The title track is a 28 minutes monster composition,very diverse and catchy,with plenty of musical twists and unexpected moments!All the guys in the band are on top of their technical skills,without being too demonstrative,just efficient and proud to deliver such high class prog rock!We have here influences from prog rock giants like YES....GENESIS....GENTLE GIANT...or more modern prog icons like THE FLOWER KINGS or SPOCK'S BEARD or ECHOLYN...great vocal harmonies a la Yes...and also a marvelous vintage sound,with a Rickenbacker bass guitar in front and great old school organ sound!Also,the drum sound is marvelous,all the sound is very organic and shows the unique fascination of this type of music!The mix is just perfect,it captures all what it has to,a great sound of the instruments and a production which puts in evidence the unique flavour of vintage prog rock.This album proves at 100 % that old school prog still has many things to offer to his fans and the charm of this music is timeless!Definitelly ,a musical triumph for TSOP,and the promise to have from this extremelly talented musiciand,great albums in the future!It seems that only sky is the limit for THE SAMURAI OF PROG!I dare to say that THE IMPERIAL HOTEL is almost a masterpiece album,everything is close to perfection-both music and look,presentation of the album!4.75 stars for me....rounded to 5!

Based in Finland, the multinational project THE SAMURAI OF PROG is a band that was started by Marco Bernard and Kimmo Parsti back in 2009, and from 2010 and onwards also featuring the talents of Steve Unruh. Following two initial productions that mainly consisted of cover material they have now focused on exploring original material. "The Imperial Hotel" is their third studio recording, released by the Finnish label Seacrest Oy in 2014.

Those fond of vintage era progressive rock in general and the symphonic varieties of it in particular should find "The Imperial Hotel" to be a real treat. There are a few select pointers towards many of the bands from the classic era that give the material a sense of familiarity, enough going on at all times to keep matters interesting, and the different instrumentalists involved all add elements and details to the proceedings that give the individual songs a distinct presence and individual character. Highly recommended to fans of progressive rock, and to those with an affection for vintage era symphonic progressive rock in particular.

THE SAMURAI OF PROG - The Imperial Hotel is one of the TOP PROG releases of the year (and not only!) - if you love not only Yes and Genesis BUT Gentle Giant as well with that variety of crossing parts that 'work' together like a completed puzzle - WELCOME to the hotel ! Great "more than guest" there: Robert Webb, musician from the great legendary ENGLAND band, with unreleased but - now - like a "newborn" music. You will enjoy your stay also with amazing design of the CD: 6-panels' digipack + 40 pages' booklet (many Ed Unitsky's, well-known artist's, artworks - totally in a style of the Victorian era but with much fun!) So, you will meet in The Imperial Hotel album:

- 'After the Echoes' (of Yes! with a great chorus on that way) - "Don't wanna give up but I don't know why. I did not ask for this That voice comes from me, if I don't believe it myself, who will?" This music helps! So you was thinking that it's "Yes-like" album? You will SURPRISED with every next track!

- Sooo "tasty" ' Limoncello' - real "fine art" in music ! Robert Webb's (from ) music brilliantly performed by 'Samurai of Prog' with all of the rich palette/arrangement - it's a treasure! Perfect "music box" (Neapolitan? Mexican? Victorian?) with many sweet moments and a sence of humour - music smiles :) Our reverances, Samurai!

- 'Victoria's Summer Home' - very beautiful piano music, with a special mood and warm feelings - real cosy and happy summer! Musically it's maybe like a Debussy and Philip Glass but also with active movement and interesting harmonies that sounds so "naturally"! Also David Myers is really great player - I have to admit that I was trying to play some tune by ear and.. I have to train for this much more seriously!

- 'The Imperial Hotel' - be ready for the Great Adventure in music - it's a Story with many parts/moods/themes! Real hit from the very beginning - I understand how I love PROG music with it ! Great pleasure and many interesting things both in music and lyrics (and pictures - look at the booklet!). Old/young Emma (you see her at the cover art !) and some mystic transformations of reality, with a dose of absurdity - it's not Stephen King but Genesis way of PROG thinking! I bet you will sing that "Eigh-teen-for-ty 'twas was built for nobi-lity, Victoria commanding the throne..." hehe Oh - and great violine and flute, thank you Mr Steve Unruh! And turn your attention to the Marco Bernard who plays bass: he "feel" the right and the same - unusial moments for notes! (very interesting to "follow" with the parts!)

- 'Into the Lake' (near Gentle Giant's Glass House, hehe): what a sounds and choirs! It's a very original piece of music, and even with all of the influences that we so glad to catch at the album - it's Samurai's of Prog STYLE . Brilliant arrangement, interesting turns, many great guitar parts (not only in solos!), acoustic guitar, voilin, flute... without any 'borders' of their own music manners and with a LOT of fun! The more I listen to the album - the more I love it. Very much recommended!

The Single Malt Whisky of Prog

Whoa Nelly! This is an excellent CD of progressive music that took me back 40 years in time. A group that came from nowhere and playing the kind of music You have ever dream of.

They are exactly like a single malt whisky: a hint of Gentle Giant, a whiff of Yes, a full body of Genesis and an aftertaste of ELP, there's even the full drum solo from Stairway to Heaven in the title song (look for It).

This is, I think, one of the best CD's of 2014 and keeps growing on me with every single spin so It is recommended to you if you miss terribly the seventies (I do).

107 ratings but only four reviews for this excellent third album of this Finland-based, multi-national band! The preceding works included covers of classic prog, and they truly are good in that field, but this five-track album consists of new material. Like before, the core trio of Marco Bernard (b), Kimmo Pörsti (dr) and Steve Unruh (voc, v, fl, ac-g) are accompanied by a wide cast of guest appearances. The music is written by the four different keyboardists who naturally also play on the album.

'After the Echoes' is a complex song composed by Octavio Stampalia (JINETES NEGROS). Each musician gives his best in this highly progressive tune. The vocal harmonies of Unruh and Stampalia add to the YES-like atmosphere. 'Limoncello', a song originally from a Various Artists 4-CD project Decameron Part II (2014), catches Robert Webb (ENGLAND) singing in a slightly humorous semi-falsetto about a chance meeting of Giovanni Boccaccio. Very interesting 8-minute prog tune spinning around a violin-centred melodic pattern.

David Myers, who offered beautiful piano introductions for 'The Lamia' and 'Dancing With the Moonlit Knight' on TSOP's earlier albums, is soloing on his romantic, three-minute 'Victoria's Summer Home', bridged by Unruh's natural effects into the majestic title track (28:09). 'The Imperial Hotel', with its Victorian-ish ghost story contents, was brought to the band from the ENGLAND archives by Robert Webb who again is the lead vocalist too. What a gorgeous prog epic bowing deep for the classic side-long prog epics of bands such as Genesis, Yes and Jethro Tull -- nearly rivalling them, without stealing direct ideas from any of them. The final track 'into the Lake' is by the Swedish keyboardist-vocalist Linus Kåse (BRIGHTEYE BRISON). Not quite as impressive to my ears as the rest of the album, it nevertheless operates very skillfully in the GENTLE GIANT -like rhythmic complexity.

My hesitation between 4 and 5 stars is solved by the superb visual design of the fold-out covers and the 40-page booklet. The term "masterpiece" suits at least to the title track, but as a whole this is a (surprisingly, considering the varied composers) coherent and extremely ambitious piece of progressive rock that hits the goal perfectly.