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Review:
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I remember vividly that a few years ago fellow Tron-maniac
Maurice Dam recommended Norwegian progrock band Wobbler
to me. He had seen the band on the annual USA progrock festival
Nearfest in the same year of their debut album Hinterland
(2005) and he was delighted. When I told him that I couldn’t
share the euphoric opinions because of the in my opinion
too fragmentic sounding compositions on Hinterland, he answered
that he was astonished that their best compositions were
deleted on Hinterland. Well, on Afterglow you can enjoy
those ‘lost 1999 tracks’ (re-recorded in 2007/08) and you
will also understand why he was so positive about these
compositions. -
Listening to Afterglow I quickly conclude that this
mini-CD (close to 35 minutes) is superior to Hinterland,
what an exciting Seventies symphonic rock oriented sound,
especially the vintage keyboard sound (Hammond, Mellotron,
Minimoog) is mindblowing! The album contains 5 songs, 3
short pieces with mainly acoustic instruments (only halfway
Armoury the climate turns into bombastic with majestic church
organ and fat Minimoog synthesizer runs) and 2 epic compositions:
first Imperial Winter White (obvious Anglagard echoes with
a mighty Mellotron sound - flute/violin/choir-section -
, a powerful Rickenbacker bass and a second part with Damian
Wilson-like vocals) and then In Taberna: a more Anekdoten
inspired sound with splendid bombastic eruptions, lots of
dynamics and fiery electric guitar. - This album is a perfct
example of “quality above quantity”, it reminds me of the
many classic Seventies Italian Progrock albums that clock
around 33 minutes!
www.progwalhalla.com
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