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| Black Jester - Diary of a Blind Angel |
 Released: 1992 Label: Music Is Intelligence/WMMS Cat. No.: WMMS 021 Total Time: 46:22 | |
Reviewed by: Stephanie Sollow, July 1999 Further disproving the impression that I like everything I hear, I offer up Black Jester. For the purpose of reviewing past releases, I thought I'd give Diary of a Blind Angel another spin, in part to see if my inital impression had changed in the year or so since I last played it. It hasn't. I'd like to like it - some of the music is very good, but the vocalist, Alex "The Jester" D'Este, hasn't really got a singing voice that lends itself to repeated listenings. As one can tell by the name, there is a Marillion influence - if in name only. Only bits here and there are Marillion-esque; most of this is harder edged metal a la Dream Theater and Metallica. There are moments, but moments don't an album make. The lyrics, too, are weak. Trying for arty poeticism of Fish, et al, they come off instead as very amateur (and very much written by a non-native English speaker). Makes you wish they'd written in their native Italian and not bothered with the English. But, English sells and is more conducive to rock. The production here is rather muddy, sounds almost live actually, rather than a studio recording. Because they don't have a strong vocalist, it is actually a good thing that the vocals are lost amongst the rest of the instruments. Unfortunately, there isn't very much to recommend this to anyone, except for a few moments here and there. The band have recently renamed themselves Moonlight Circus, with a new vocalist. -ed] More about Diary of a Blind Angel: Track Listing: Night Voices (6:43) / The Tower And The Minstrel (7:48) / Diary Of A Blind Angel (6:00) / Time Theater (a) King Of Eternity (b) (10:22) / Mother Moon (7:08) / Black Jester Opera (8:11) Musicians: Contact: Website: welcome.to/moonlightcircus/ Discography
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