TALES OF ARDOUR & DECEIT

This album shows two faces of ETC: The first, a strong symphonic band with some GENESIS influences doing an agressive, changing and magnificent piece, the long suite "The Song of Marsh Stig". Altough at few moments this composition is close to metal rythms, it's the pearl of the album.

After the suite, the second face of ETC appears: most of the music is now atmospheric and even very relaxing, with long guitar driven soundscapes reminding me CAMEL, specially at the seventh track, the short and beautiful "The Exit". Some moments could be a little bit boring, but -generally- the music remains interesting.

"Tales of Ardour & Deceit", maybe, isn't the most creative progressive work, but it's nice and pleasant to the listener. A good album to check out.

In '98 the Danish progrock band Etcetera released their debut-CD entitled "Fin du siecle". Not until five years later their next, long awaited album came out. The first, very long track "The song of marsh" (15 minutes) is very alternating: a sumptuous climate featuring moving Mellotron (like mid-Led Zeppelin), dreamy twanging acoustic guitars and volume- pedal guitar play (in the vein of early Genesis/Hackett) and fiery, more complex parts with saxophone like King Crimson and bombastic church organ with echoes from Keith Emerson. So you can conclude that this band sounds like a progrock stew of the Seventies dinosaurs! Then the short "Songs" with tender Fender Rhodes piano, beautiful acoustic guitar and halfway wonderful violin-Mellotron and vocal harmonies. In "Kentisch suite" you will be delighted about the fiery wah-wah drenched guitarwork and runs on the Moog synthesizer and Hammond organ, VINTAGE TIME!! The track "The lady of Castela" is indeed Spanish influenced delivering an intro with Spanish guitar like Julian Bream, followed by twanging acoustic guitars, mellow flute (evoking early Hackett solo) and soaring keyboards and a bagpipe sound. The climates are very alternating featuring choir- Mellotron, up-tempo with Gilmour-inspired guitar and great Moog and Hammond work. The final tracks are "The exit" (excellent brainwork!), this short song contains fiery electric guitar and an exciting guitar/synthesizer duel and "The ghost of Yang Part II" with lots of nature sounds. Although this CD delivers lots of captivating progrock moments, to me it often sounds a bit too fragmentic, the compositions need more maturity. But Etcetera deserves credit on their second album, I'm looking forward to their next one!

"Tales Of Ardour & Deceit" is the fourth full-length studio album by Danish progressive rock act Etcetera (...or ETC as it says on the cover of the album). The album was released through Record Heaven in 2003. It´s the successor to "Fin De Siecle" from 2001. Etcetera formed in 1986 as a high school band by main composer and multi-instrumentalist Frank Carvalho and drummer Johnnie McCoy. They recorded two independent albums in the late 90s before being signed for the release of "Fin De Siecle". Shortly after the release of "Tales Of Ardour & Deceit", McCoy left Etcetera, and Carvalho opted to split-up the band.

Stylistically the material on "Tales Of Ardour & Deceit" is influenced by the early seventies progressive rock scene and artists like Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, and Camel. Just listen to the melody line and the voice of guest vocalist Michael Munch on the opening 16:23 minutes long epic "The Song Of Marsh Stig". It could just as well have been Gordon Haskell (King Crimson) in disguise. This is however predominantly an instrumental album (with long atmospheric parts not completely unlike some of Camel´s output from the 70s) and only "The Song Of Marsh Stig" and the second track on the album titled "Songs" feature vocals. The music is generally pleasant and features some great melodic guitar playing and lots of vintage synth and organ playing. It´s quite dynamic with both loud epic moments and more subtle beautiful quiet moments.

Etcetera are a well playing unit, and especially Carvalho shines with his great guitar/keyboard playing. "Tales Of Ardour & Deceit" features a well sounding production job, which suits the material well, and upon conclusion it´s a good quality progressive rock album. You won´t find anything here you haven´t already heard on the 70s releases from the above mentioned artists, but there is still enough quality here to warrant a 3 star (60%) rating.

Tales Of ARdour & Decit was danich group Etcetera´s fourth and final album before they disbanded. And it came as a bit of a disappointment to me. Please, don´t get me wrong, the CD is good, you can see the guys in the band are superb musicians and they have all the right influences you may want for a symphonic prog band (Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd). The problem seems to be that they were unable to come up with a personality of their own. Their music seems to be just the sum of the styles they like, not a mix.

Just like I said on my review of their second album, this CD is like a bunch of tracks put together with different styles and no common threat. Every song seems to be recorded by a different group. Even if no one is weak, it hardly sounds like a cohesive whole in the end. which is a pity because they are all good). It all starts very well with the 16 minute The Song Of Marsh Stig (strong KC beginning, but it lacks some focus in the end), then comes the very Gentle Giant-ish Songs (which sounds too much like that group´s Nothing At All). And so it goes. The band simply never reached the songwriting skills needed to match their terrific musicanship. With time and more persistence they very well may have reached another level completely, but since they have broeken up, we´ll probably never know. the production, the playing and the arrangments are all top notch.

In the end I found this Cd quite pleasant and tasteful. While they falied to have their very own distinctive sound, they still could deliver some fine tunes. If you like 70´s symphonic prog and don´t mind for the lack of originality, then this album is recommended. At least they did have the chops and the guts to do it all right. My rating: somwhere between 3 and 3,6 stars. Good (sometimes very good!), but non-essential.