|
Here's a "progressive" band that's
almost as pompous as its name. Celestial O'euvre is an 80's
style AOR rock band that takes snippets of prog themes and
dumps them into songs that sound like Perry era Journey or
Foreigner or worse.***
The opening track "Zeitgeist" begins
with thirty seconds of Yes rip-off and then sinks into something
that sounds like Greg Kihn or Tommy Tutone, for Gods sake.
And it doesn't get much better as it goes on. Or after repeated
listening either.***
It's really a shame that the band
is sooooo misguided in their attempts to write and perform
progressive rock because they are all excellent musicians
and there is no reason that they couldn't have produced a
nice set of songs. When they kick into one of their incongruous
prog moments they do an excellent job of it, but they seem
to have no clue whatsoever as to what is and what is not prog
rock.***
The second track "Black Flower"
might fool you right off the bat into thinking that first
cut was a fluke, but a minute and a half into it, here comes
the Molly Hatchet licks. Someone is under the impression that
having a keyboard solo makes a song progressive or that thirty
seconds of 7/8 time will do the same.***
"To Be Alone" can at least claim
not to be in 4/4 and "Riding The Brakes" is nice as long as
you were hoping for some Whitesnake or Scorpions. The high
point of this disc is the minute and a half intro to "In The
Water" which has some nice organ work and a brief Holdsworthian
guitar solo before slipping into………well, you can probably
figure it out yourself by now.***
One thing I will give this band
is that vocalist Joe Acaba's lyrics are thoughtful and portray
a very caring humanist philosophy, but proof reading the lyrics
and credits for spelling errors would have been a good idea.***
At least I didn't have to pay for
this.
RATING: 2/5
©Thomas Karr April 10, 2006
|
