VICTIM OF YOUR FATHER'S AGONY

The Norwegian heavy prog band ARABS IN ASPIC is one of the Scandinavian acts on the Italian Black Widow label. A new acquaintance to me, but in the light of reviews their style has stayed quite unchanged. It's very much oriented to the erly 70's classic heavy rock sound of URIAH HEEP, DEEP PURPLE etc. Lots of Hammond and meaty electric guitars!

The vocals are surprisingly pleasant, pretty free of the usual heavy clich's such as big vibrato or "high & loud" acrobatics, instead full of hree-part vocal harmonies. Yes, they are "heavier" than Crosby, Stills & Nash, but in a good, uplifting way that also non- heavy diggers such as me can easily appreciate. And the music is equally positive and good-spirited (without being lame at all), in all its power. Whereas a great deal of of heavy/metal rock makes me feel angry and frustrated, this quartet makes me feel good.

Tempo ismostly on the middle ground. This is crucial, giving enough room to both PINK FLOYD -reminding atmosphere and Nursery Cryme -era GENESIS kind of instrumentality. Guitars are relatively nuanced and besides Hammond there's also good ol' Mellotron.

I only wish the album to be a bit longer than 37' minutes. With three out of nine tracks being instrumentals, the whole is very balanced. No, it doesn't rival classics such as Demons & Wizards (1972) in the songwriting, but right from the start I knew I like it and want to recommend it to all listeners of vintage old school Heavy Prog.