MORPHELIA

"Walk Through The Park" opens with nature sounds and someone walking around as the piano kicks in. Vocals follow then the guitar. There is something emotional everytime the piano and vocals come in. "The En-Trance" is a short piece with atmosphere and spoken words before we get some guitar-led bombast to end it. "Hunt In The Hall" is a fairly powerful track with vocals. The guitar is quite metallic at times. I like the floating organ and the soaring guitar solo. "In The Captain's Room" opens with the sound of a door opening before laid back guitar and vocals take over, but the synths and keyboards also help out. The synths remind me of the "Wish You Were Here" album.

"Never Ending Steps" is surprisingly heavy as the vocals join in. The chorus is better but the instrumental section late is great. "Blue Chamber" is acoustic sounding with reserved vocals to start, then gulp...this section of pure emotion arrives. This will come and go and is my favourite part of the album. I should mention that mellotron is part of this moving passage as well. Contrasts continue. "365 Windows" is belivev it or not very METALLICA sounding instrumentally. "Mirror Labyrinth" is also heavy when it comes to the rhythm section and the guitar. "From The Room Of Silens" ends disc one with an intricate and mellow piece with fragile vocals. We even get an Eastern vibe before 4 minutes but it doesn't last long.

Disc two begins with "Imaginos(A Taste Of Evil)" with the organ swirling as the keys join in. It turns heavier as the vocals join in. A calm follows which sounds really cool then the guitar solos over top and this continues for some time. The heavier more urgent sounding rhythm section kicks back in with vocals after 5 minutes. "On The Roof(A Taste Of Freedom)" has these spacey background synths and prominant bass to start as the vocals join in. It builds as the drums join in. Some nice guitar in this feel good tune.

"In The Hall Of Stormy Oceans" is spacey with soaring guitar until a minute in when it settles with reserved vocals. It does pick up some with keyboards 2 1/2 minutes in. Pulsating organ follows then it becomes powerful and the vocals return with passion. A catchy guitar and vocal line after 13 minutes. "The End Is The Beginning Of The End(From The Inside Coming Out)" is the longest track by far at over 27 minutes. It's spacey early on as melancholic keyboards join in. An Eastern feel before 6 minutes then the guitar slowly solos, this is so good with all that atmosphere. Some aggressive guitar later on rips it up. Vocals return with more great sounding guitar and some power at times. It then trips along with vocals and the guitar before 20 minutes which reminds me of Italy's GARDEN WALL. The guitar solos over and over and then it ends like it began with nature sounds.

If your a Neo-Prog fan then you need this in your collection.

This album is a big step up from their debut release "Prognocircus" 6 years earlier, which is pretty good itself. It is certainly not easy coming up with almost 2 hours of fresh neo-prog in a concept album, but the band has really hit a home run with "Waken the Nightmare". The compositions and musicianship are top notch, with no filler tracks at all.

The first cd features 9 distinct tracks. Most of these tracks mix in the heavier guitars along with the prominent keyboards and strong bass lines. The second cd is less heavy and includes two great epics to close the album. There are so many great melodies on both cd's that interest is kept up throughout the entire 2 cd experience.

I must also add that good vocals are very important on a great neo-prog album, and the singer here, Kurt Stwrtetschka, has an excellent voice, always on key, although somewhat softer, which actually goes very well with the music.

5 stars all the way.

Now I am not saying this is a bad album, in fact there is not really a terrible song out of the bunch, but when listening to the album straight through it does seem to drag on a bit. I wouldn't say it gets boring but more so the songs lose personality after awhile and it brings down the mood as a whole. Overall I would have to give it a 3.5 stars but I am rounding it down to a three.

So that means the style is right in between neo prog and heavy prog with a touch of art rock. Nice addition to my collection is my overall feeling when I listen to the rest of the songs. The album lasts about 70 minutes so that means you get material for your money. And there are no poor fillers on this debut so that's another advantage. It's funny by the way that one of the shorter tracks on the album is my personal fav actually. Fourth track A Winter's Tale is truly excellent (brilliant composition). Funny because in almost all cases I prefer the longer songs on any album.

In the end it turns out to be another tough nut to crack where the final rating is concerned. Because that's once again right between 3 and 4 stars. And again I have to conclude: whichever rating I pick, it's not quite right. Especially with being the first to review and rate you want to be accurate and careful. I let the consistency be the deciding factor here and choose the four stars but it's really 3,5 so don't get your hopes up too much. The rounding up is meant as an encouragement for the band and I don't want to sell the album short. But I happen to know many proggers don't like long albums so if you're one of those you'd better skip this very fine debut by Morphelia.

Pleasant, forgiving, melodic, promising and giving. Feeling of fresh originality is always pleasant and I seek it more and more music I know, love and own. Not necessarily being experimental, just sounding new, or using sound patterns in new way. And this double CD monster, with its interesting lyrics (In the Captain's Room for example). And I don't care what exactly makes this music good, that's for you to find out, but I just enjoy that it works. A lot.

In fact, I hesitate between two best ratings at the moment to be honest. So first CD is perfect, there's little room to negative things, but second one is big mystery for me.

5(-), the answer (to the eternal question of life, universe and everything) is that their last stands is worth of masterpiece rating. Bring it on, more shine for this mildly dark band.