QUEEN OF SABA

A double guitar quintet with a flutist/percussionist that recorded their sole album in mid- 72 in the Dierks studios producing an average proggy/psychey rock album that was released latter that year on the legendary Ohr label. As with a lot of those expensive and rare records, the music is not quite all it's cracked up to be. Even with the help of Wallenstein's Jurgen Dollasse playing keyboards, Walpurgis's music has problems interesting the demanding proghead on the first side of the album. Actually, I have rarely heard such an unexciting record coming from the Dieter Dierks studios, so this might give an idea on how over-rated this album is. They sound a bit depressing (but unlike Paternoster, this is more accidental than voluntary) and the songwriting is their most glaring weakness.

Don't get me wrong, the music in itself is not bad and the album is off to a poor start: the first two tracks are downright poor (the aptly titled Disappointment and the title track and the next two (Daily and Hey you, Over There) take their sweet time to really develop, but both end well and have interesting conga play, but none actually are really exciting, just plain acceptable fillers on a good to average album.

But the album ends in a much better fashion than it started, as side two is much more enthralling with two longer tracks. The 7-min What Can I Do? is right from the first note more enthusiasting (but still not that great IMHO) than anything on the first side, even if it is clear it is the same band. With the aptly-titled (and a bit prophetic I must sadly conclude) My Last Illusion, they desperately try to throw in everything they got, and they come close, but still do not manage enough, even if the lengthy guitars solos and great percussion work are worth the hear and are almost impressive until the track stops suddenly to start slowly thereafter (a bit pointlessly) to finish a bit later. No doubt they were filling space there too. NB: this album works best at loud volume (this means a fair amount louder than reasonable), but I don't think the songwriting is good enough to take the risk to upset the people in the same building you are in.

Nothing really worthy breaking your piggy bank over, really, Walpurgis is only for those people collecting artefact of the Ohr label rare releases. Clearly this group did not have enough chops to keep going and record their second album. I may sound a bit severe, but let's face it this album did not even manage a third spin in my deck.

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