Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Fabio Zuffanti - Fabio Zuffanti & Victoria Heward: Merlin - The Rock Opera CD (album) cover

FABIO ZUFFANTI & VICTORIA HEWARD: MERLIN - THE ROCK OPERA

Fabio Zuffanti

 

Crossover Prog

3.08 | 27 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Fabio Zuffanti can be compared to Roine Stolt from "The Flower Kings". He is leading an awful lot of projects at the same time and this will partially ruin this double CD set. I am just found of "La Maschera Di Cera" and "Hostsonaten" also pleases me a lot. And while "Finisterre" is only good to my ears, I was keen on listening to this "Merlin" rock opera stuff.

After having listened to the "Overture" of this "rock opera", I was just even more interested in discovering this work because it is really a good start. My high enthusiasm was just filled when I listened to the next song : "As It Was in the Beginning". A jewel of prog music with such great mellotron, subtle piano and beautiful melodies. Vocals are also very well performed here. This song has some definite "Renaissance" flavour and should please any prog lover.

But after these two very good songs, what a disappointment ! It sounds as if I was listening to a musical in Broadway or the London West End. These vocal duos just remind me this feeling. Of course, you might say that since it is a concept album about Merlin, Arthur and all that mythical story, it is almost normal. But I do not agree. There are ways to avoid falling into this trap.

The only great number after those two openings is "The Wedding March". Full of great keys and with some passionate vocals. It is also somewhat borderline to release a double CD which lenght lasts for ninety minutes (and not eightY one as mentioned). The band would have been inspired by cutting some of these short tracks which might maybe have some sort of signification in the whole history but in terms of musical interest they are just short and useless. By doing this, we would have gotten a one CD work which would have sound less boring.

Just for die-hard fans of Fabio's work (like me) who would like to discover another aspect of his personality.

Two stars.

ZowieZiggy | 2/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this FABIO ZUFFANTI review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.