THE PURE SHINE

Flaming Row have long been one of my favourite bands, and in their midst they have some of my favourite musicians in Marek Arnold (keyboards, sax) and Martin Schnella (guitar, bass, vocals) and Melanie Mau (vocals), with the line-up completed by Niklas Kahl (drums). Together they have an incredibly commercial and accessible approach to progressive rock which is always a delight. There is something light-hearted, almost playful, about their music which never contains the navel-gazing which can accompany some bands. Amazing vocals, and the use of saxophone combined with strong arrangements and songs full of hooks combine to make each release a delight.

This is their third album, having taken some six years to record, and contains multiple guests as this is a concept and has been released as a double disc set with one CD containing the album and the second the music without the vocals. One reason for the use of guests, and the length of time it took to produce, is this is a concept album, and while I would normally welcome that, this time I have issues. Last year I took the opportunity of living and working away from home to do something I had been meaning to do for some years, which is read the complete 'The Dark Tower' series. When I say series, it is a series in the same as 'Lord of The Rings' is a series, in that the books need to be read one after other and are in fact one story broken into parts. In total there are eight books and one short story, more than 1.3 million words ? to context this, 'Lord of The Rings' (even including 'The Hobbit') is just 576,000 words, so much less than half the length. Knowing this, one can see why so many Stephen King fans (including myself) think that while Idris Elba was a fine choice for Roland Deschain, and the film is good on many levels, it has been merely influenced by the books and misses many of the main element and twists others.

Unfortunately, the same is true of this album, and I really wish they had taken another lyrical approach as for me this just does not work. To shoehorn the story into an album they have taken the same approach as the film and have concentrated on just three main characters, whereas in the book there are at least five with others coming in and out as the story progresses. I believe they were influenced far more by the film than the books, and the result is something which is even further removed from the original. The first time I played this it just jarred, and the same has been true on continued plays, but musically this is their finest album to date, and the different vocals and harmonies are just wonderful. Part of me wishes they had recorded this in their native German and then I could have simply enjoyed what is a superb piece of music, without finding the words causing me problems as I love the original story so much.

I do believe those who enjoy the books will cringe when they hear this, but if people have not read the books and only seen the film then they may well get far more from it than I. When the film was released one of my daughters asked if she could borrow the book and was rather surprised when I told her there were so many, and even more surprised when she saw just how big they were and declined. The whole album is full of flourishes and flicks of skill, it moves and breathes, and is triumph on so many levels. The vocals are what really set this off, so while the instrumental CD is interesting and enjoyable, it does not contain the raw power and emotion from the main disc. Me, I just cannot get past the words, which for me reduces an album from one which undoubtedly should be marked as being absolutely indispensable to one which is excellent on many levels, but may well be one which book lovers may have to pass by.

FLAMING ROW is a German fruity melodic prog metal band, drifting a bit into pop, folk and conceptual opera musical spaces as AYREON likes to do. So modern progressive rock a little metallic, and here a touch of neo, symphonic in addition to the melodic prog which reassures. This is his 3rd album after two other very good CDs and it took him 6 years to come out. In terms of atmosphere we have musicians from THRESHOLD, PAIN OF SALVATION, SPOCK'S BEARD, PATTERN SEEKING ANIMALS, LONTACH, IGNORE THE SIGN but the most important is the pure and clean sound that FLAMING ROW has managed to develop on this opus: pure neo symphonic prog metal opera with an orchestral structure, all with its folk touches. Let's add to this preamble the story told around Stephen KING's short story "The Dark Tower".

"A Tower In The Clouds" sets off with a magical, radiant, magnificent, symphonic tune, the intro that you want without daring to ask for it. There is the air, the majestic side, the classical instruments and the atmosphere, the voice-over then the vocal flights, the same impression as when you first listen to "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" (the 2nd CD) c 'is to say. And this sequence with "The Last Living Member" bringing with its 3 drawers, felted atmospheres, progressive climbs, breaks arranged with the use of an orchestral ensemble to give even more intensity. The male voice that sends you back to that of Peter GABRIEL, the arpeggios that follow one another and refer to the first GENESIS, everything is done to make you melt. Diffuse ARGOS tones at one point, a HARRIS-style bass at another, the rhythm then switches to AYREON, prog metal with a male voice, good riff. We can feel the listening to VANDEN PLAS to admirably mix these two genres, in short, a must! "Jake's Destiny" always follows on the dry guitar for a rather folk rendering at first, then an Irish and / or medieval bagpipe sends further. At 3 minutes it starts with the symphonic orchestration and this flute which reminds me a bit of OLDFIELD, it picks up everywhere and it has the merit of not being too scattered. Listen to the 2nd instrumental CD to research all the subtleties (yes, there are some differences on the 1st and 5th track!) Before returning to the main sung CD; but remember that after the trumpet, the bagpipe and the wild violin come here to create the jig in a very beautiful, highly technical way. The return to the main tune puts you back in suspense for the second part of the track which leaves with the enchanting voice of Mélanie.

"The Sorcerer", again with 3 under-drawers, takes us to a more complex, more elaborate and more worked territory with a typical voice à la Peter GABRIEL and the convulsions of GENESIS (wind and string instruments) and AYREON, and for Mélanie's angelic voice, we find Anneke's verve at times. A title with breaks, quieter passages, but where progression is essential both in terms of listening and the structure itself. It is obvious that incorporating tracks of 12 to 17 minutes is not done in a flash, that even the ear, even sensitized to progressive rock, will require several plays and will release certain subtleties each time, here the sax, the flute, the piano and the aerial drums will set the tone; " my best "! "The Final Attempt" attacks with once again the sulphurous and committed voice of Mélanie for a simple melodious track, rich but never boring, the singular break of rhythm towards 2'30 '' is worth the detour and there the voice-overs and the sax lead to PINK FLOYD, to PAIN OF SALVATION, to Steven WILSON (just for the jazzy limit synth followed by bass) and even some notes of VANDEN PLAS or some ELOY. The guitar becomes more angry then, the sax arrives aerial too, the voice accompanies suddenly on a tune of "Bohemian Rhapsody", we remain amazed, amazed at so many finds. "The Gunslinger's Creed" goes on with 4 sub drawers so with the continuation of Stephen KING's work, we feel the progression of the story with the notes delivered, pure, chiseled, crystalline from the start, taking by the throat; at one point we think back to Mike OLDFIELD and his typical flutes and folk tunes. Perhaps more / too many voices towards the end of this intoxicating river title at one point, but the tune resumes with an agreed ending, more orchestral to finally calm a little our ears which took it for their ranks (in French in the text!) by a surge at the limit of the musical maelstrom. This album had its release date in 2019, but also in 2020 (January 17 to be precise) for the official one in bac. This album is a pure masterpiece. This album manages to concentrate in 140 minutes (70 sung and 70 purely orchestral) all that one could hope for as a fan of progressive rock, the one who opens up to new and old sounds, the one who no longer thinks of putting sub-groups under each musician, under each artist. This album is just essential for his 2019 and 2020 Cédéthèque because there is just a standardized digest of the best prog influences in it.

The music on this album is so incredible that they released it with a second disc of just the music! Yes, I didn't quite expect to enjoy the second disc so much. After all, the songs and vocal parts are fabulous and tell the story of this conceptual piece, which is based on Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series. That whole first album is a treat with astounding instrumental passages between the rock opera vocals with a host of singers taking up the different parts. It's a brilliant piece of work! But very soon I found that the music was just so exciting, so involved, so beautiful that it really could stand up on its own.

Flaming Row released their third album in December of 2019. After chalking up their previous album "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures" as one of my favourite prog metal albums and favourite concept narrative albums of all time, I was both excited and hesitant to get the new album. The former is like Ayreon meets Dream Theater meets Haken. Since I hadn't heard the first album "Elinoire" I didn't know if "Mirage" was just a special thing or if this complex, varied and thrilling music was just how the band worked.

My first observation was that the metal element was relegated way in back of the acoustic side. In fact, it's quite the opposite of "Mirage" where the album was mostly electric with acoustic interludes. Here the acoustic instrumentation takes over and the heavier electric sequences are present and effective, but not at the front of the stage as much this time. However, that was not anything to disappoint me. All the acoustic guitar, piano, strings, woodwinds, and percussion easily won my ears over in an instant. There is simply so much beauty in the music here! So once again, I'm listening to just the instrumental versions of the tracks after having heard the whole first disc with the vocals once more through.

There's something very interesting about some the music on this new album. Right from the first listen, I recognized at least a couple of the powerful and memorable melodies. I'd heard them on "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures". But the two stories were completely different. "Mirage" is about an alien species that tries to eliminate humans from the earth before it's destroyed by human beings, and how the survivours struggle to find a way to keep the human race from being snuffed out. "The Pure Shine" is from the Stephen King novel series mentioned above. Was there some connection?

I contacted guitarist Martin Schnella and asked about the repeated melodies. He replied saying that they had actually written much of the music for a trilogy back in 2011-13. But as his acoustic project with Melanie Mau overtook Flaming Row in popularity and also some key members left the band, the trilogy fell through. However, Martin loved much of the music he had written and decided to pass it along to the third album. It seems a bit puzzling to hear the same melodies for two different stories, but I really like hearing these again in a new sound pallet. Catch the powerful melody at 13:12 in "The Sorcerer" and compare it to "Pictures" from "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures"at 2:39. There's also the flute melody in "Jake's Destiny" - incidentally, my pick for most awesome track on the album - that sounds really close to one in the opening track of "Mirage".

So, whether you enjoy the whole of album one with the lyrical parts and wonderfully good vocal executions or you can get into just letting the instruments speak, this album is a special work. I can enjoy either disc equally.

And if you can, I highly recommend checking out "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures" because it's such a tremendous piece of work.