OMPHALOS

KOTEBEL create very serious symphonic music that is complex with a Classical flavour. Certainly the soprano, operatic female vocals only add to the high-classed climate of this music. Lots of piano and flute on this one.

"Ra" is the 13 minute opener that features a lot of tempo changes. It opens with flute and piano. Throughout this album you would swear there is mellotron but apparently it's string-synths. There are some nice outbreaks of guitar before 4,6 1/2 and 8 minutes.The vocals though really make it hard for me to enjoy this song. "Excellent Meat" is really different from the other tracks and it's my favourite. This is one of only 2 songs that were written by the guitarist. It features a nice heavy soundscape with some ripping guitar after 2 minutes that goes on and on. A calm after 3 1/2 minutes where strummed guitar and flute lead the way. It kicks back in a minute later with more scorching guitar. "The Pentacle's Suite" is over 30 minutes long and is divided into 6 parts. It starts with the "Prologue" a short intro with dark guitar with those female vocals before the other instruments join in. "Sun" sounds really good with the flute leading the way as bass, light drums,piano and synths help out. Guitar comes in sounding excellent. Waves of sound follow before we get a calm,then a fuller sound comes in. "Mercury" opens with vocals as acoustic guitar joins in. Eventually bass, cymbals, flute, drums and guitar are added one at a time. The guitar play is beautiful. Cool song. "Venus" features some guest cello with piano, string-synths and flute. "Mars" opens with some good bass as drums come in and build. Flute is added. I love the band interplay before 2 minutes. Guitar before 3 minutes followed by a calm and string-synths. Heavy bass is back. An uptempo melody to end it. "Epilogue" is more laid back with flute and slow paced drumming. Bass and vocals follow. String-synths 1 1/2 minutes in followed by a tasteful guitar solo a minute later. Piano and flute to end it.

"MetroMnemo" is the another song i like. It's an instrumental of mainly guitar,bass and drums. "Joropo" is led by piano and flute before synths then guitar come in 2 1/2 minutes. Drums and fat bass 4 minutes in. "Omphalos" is really more of the same including vocals. It's all good. Actually a guy came in the store when I had this on and asked who it was, saying he really liked it. He then asked me if i'd heard of TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA,to which I told him I had three of their cds. He said he's seen them 4 times in concert.

This deserves at least 4 stars because of the quality of the music. In my rating system though it gets 3.5 stars because I have to really like any record I give 4 or 5 stars to.The vocals make it difficult for me.