JUMBO

In general we Dutchmen do have the opinion that Germans lack any sense of humor. Well, it seems that German progrock band Grobschnitt was founded to battle this! On their covers and in their music you will find lots of traces from really great humor, for example the weird nicknames of the band members like Pepe, Eroc and Lupo. But back to the music, this album was the successor of the splendid 2-LP "Ballerman" (including the compelling epic "Solar music"). It sounds very pleasant with tasteful and melodic compositions, the strong vocals from Willy Wildschwein (he sings English with a distinctive German accent), inventive guitarwork and warm keyboardplay (lots of delicate strings, some Mellotron and organ). Highlight is the long track "Sunny sunday's sunset" (11.30 minutes) featuring fine shifting moods, great guitarplay (lots of fiery runs and delicate twanging guitars). At some moments it has a bit of the magic from "Solar music". But in my opinion this is no more or less than a good album, Grobschnitt has more moved towards accessible, mainstream prog.