THE GATHERING LIGHT

It's that time when I start thinking about albums of the year but ''The Gathering Light'' won't be making my shortlist that's for sure, unless it's as the most disappointing release of 2010. After reading a number of reviews across the internet I had great expectations of this album being a bit of a modern classic, blending Celtic elements with progressive music. Also, a couple of my friends here at ProgArchives have already rated the album highly but I'm afraid I don't share any of this enthusiasm for it. Sorry, guys.

I haven't heard any of Karnataka's other albums but the prog quotient on this one seems to be borderline at best and the folk influence is pretty well non-existent into the bargain, unless you count the intermittent use of uillean pipes and whistles.

Camel seems to be an influence but Karnataka's melodies just don't cut it. Several songs actually remind me of the Evanescence ballad ''My Immortal'' and that's another problem here, the lack of any great variety between tracks. To me this sounds like an insipid collection of songs with formulaic arrangements, fairly rudimentary drumming and incessant piercing guitar solos.

If it's New Age/ Celtic folk you're after then I'd recommend Enya. Titter ye not, Enya is a wonderful musician and songwriter. If you need convincing just listen to ''Watermark'', a truly progressive and groundbreaking album from 22 years ago! ''The Gathering Light'' sounds like muzak in comparison.

The running time of this disc is a bit over an hour but, honestly, listening to this seems longer than spending a week in the jail. My first 1-star rating, 'nuff said?