Morrigan - Forgoden Art


Year of Release: 1999
Label: self-released
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 46:33:00

What the hell is in the water in Germany? Bands like Ivory Tower, Atmosfear, Tomorrow?s Eve, Avalon and many others just put out great melodic prog metal and essentially go unnoticed except for maybe Avalon.

In addition - I go on record to say that some of the best productions have come out of Germany, and this band is no exception. It's great to hear that bands really take pride in their sound, and this disc is immaculately produced. Large sound, booming drums, clean guitars, low bottom end make this an all around scorcher in the sound dept.

Basically, it's melodic prog metal driven by guitars - nice crunching guitars at that. There are some keyboards thrown in here and there, but do not make a huge impact on the music except for some pretty intros, and some strings here and there. It's a twin guitar driven outfit with an emphasis on CRUNCH I might add. At times I hear the influences of the above-mentioned bands, but I also hear some Vanden Plas melodies briefly, and some very Shadow Gallery type vocals and harmonies.

The unfortunate part of the whole disc is that one of the guitarists doubles as the vocalist, and to be quite honest he doesn't sing that well. Maybe I should say that his voice doesn?t match the power of the music ? but either way you look at it, you will hear a hole in between the heavy, melodic music and the weak attack of the vocals. His voice sounds like a less powerful and strained version of Mike Baker of Shadow Gallery minus the polish of Baker. The harmonies are straight out of the Mike Baker school of overdubs, and this sounds pretty good, but as a solo singer, this guy comes up short. It's a shame really, because the music is quite the melodic prog metal piece. Everything is in place here except for the vocals, which shouldn?t turn everyone off except those who put an emphasis on the vocals, like I do. This could have been a serious contender save for the weak vocals.


Tracklisting:
First Light (4:41) / To Live Again (6:37) / Circle Dance (7:19) / Way To Paradise (7:13) / R?miniscence Aux Caprices (4:39) / Valuable Rose (3:45) / Forgoden Art (12:19)

Musicians:
Pierre Van Endert - vocals, keyboards, guitar
Robert Lasowski - guitar
Christian Bellinger - bass
Matthias Ziegler - drums

Guests:

Sabine Ziegler - flute
Jens Ludwig - guitar, backing vocals
Dirk Oechele - backing vocals
Uwe Ruppel - backing vocals
Erik Grosch - backing vocals

Discography:
Forgoden Art (1999)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin DE

Added: December 1st 2000
Reviewer: Larry "LarryD" Daglieri

Hits: 1839
Language: english

  

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