GOTTERDAMMERUNG

Beautifully crafted and carefully written, delicate prog with a strong medieval aura! ASGARD are one of my all time favorite progressive rock bands and "Gotterdammerung" represents for me the start of their genius. All of their albums are incredibly brilliant and ignoring any 1 of their few recordings is really sacrilege...In fact all of their albums should be reviewed to be fair within this website! Check out my section on my website devoted to ASGARD called "CALLING ALL ASGARD FANS" for complete coverage. ASGARD combine some of the most delicate and yet powerful prog ever recorded sure to please all prog fans. This music is essential !

I give it much less than when I dicovered itsome twelve years ago. There was an enormous drought of prog in those times and one had to content itself from Marillion clones such as this one , Aragon and Arena (much later though). Not that I deny having likeed it but i simply never listen to my cassette made of a compilation of the first three albums. By that time the Swedish trio had appeared and nothing else mattered. This may please to people into Fish-era Marillion fans but nowadays , this is quite irrelevant - proof is that I am only the second bothering with a review. Ok , give it another halfstar!

Although this album has it's faults you know the talent is here, and it will blossom fully on their "Arkana" record. They are kind of finding their way on this their first record it would seem.

"Antiquum" is a tough opener considering it's this gothic sounding male choir singing throughout. Not a good start really. "Warriors Of The Ideal" reminds me of MARILLION, a combination of the keyboards and vocals I suppose. An uptempo track that's pretty good. "Last Flight Of The Silver Drakkar" opens with a little bombast as pulsating organ follows. I like the deep bass lines as vocals come in.

"Mysterion-Sophia" opens with keys and synths as spoken words come in.This is dark and slow moving until after 5 minutes when the tempo picks up. By then it's too late. I like the guitar later though. Not really a fan of this one. "Alone, With My Spiritual Induction" opens with a pulsating beat as the guitar grinds away. Piano takes over for the rest of the song. "Laud (To The God Of High Places)" features acoustic guitar melodies throughout. Flute joins in. "New Myths" is mellow with flute, acoustic guitar and reserved vocals. "...Voices" is good with the raw guitar and heavy bass. Vocals are more passionate too.

The only reason I would recommend this to fans of ASGARD, would be to check out their beginnings.

This was a very good way to make a debut in the world of prog rock music. For their Götterdámmerung album, Italian quintet Asgard brought a refreshing take on the standards of neo-prog: instead of getting their main influence from Genesis and Camel at their respective primers, they went for the darker moods of Trespass-era Genesis with hints to the bucolic side of McDonald- era King Crimson. The similarities to Marillion are superficially defined by the flourishes of the synth solos and Francesco Grosso's Fishian vocal tone, but the band's rocking side was mainly oriented toward melodic hard rock and Gothic rock. Asgard created a particular twist in the European neo-prog that was developing back then in the early 90s. The latin chant 'Antiquum', heavily reminiscent of Romanesque liturgies, kicks off the album with a mysterious solemnity. The final chorale lines give way to the 13+ minute 'Warriors of the Ideal', a very appealing epic piece that finds the band exploring various tempos and motifs while keeping the basic dynamics intact. There is no doubt that the musicians know how to interact in a very solid manner. Later on, 'Mysterion - Sophia' elaborates a consistent grayish atmosphere, built on an elegant use of somber textures in which the dense keyboard layers and the occasional dual acoustic guitars' flourishes act as the main features. This track pretty much anticipates the languid atmospheres that will be noticeable recurrent in their second album Esoteric Poem. Sandwiched between these two tracks is the album's catchiest song: 'Last Flight of the Silver Drakkar'. This song bears a powerful appeal with its moving rhythm structure and flashy melodic lines. The second half of the album, occupied by tracks 5-9, is a continuum that introduces a set of variations to the band's already established statement. Track 5 begins with a brief syncopated rock prelude that opens the door to a reflective piano solo, which in turn lead to track 6, an acoustic guitar solo piece soon joined by the flute. The two 'New Myths' songs (tracks 7 & 8) difer notably: the first one is a pastoral ballad developed from the previous track, while the latter is a mid-tempo rocker (almost martial) that displays a sort of return to track 5's prelude. The city noises that appear during the fade-out set a bridge to the closer, the 11+ minute '...Voices'. This piece combines the epic drive of 'Warriors of the Ideal' with the languid mystery of 'Mysterion - Sophia', and so the final result leads to the biggest demostration of symphonic sophistication in the album. The main flaws of Götterdämmerung are the sound production (the pretty lame organization of the various instruments' sonorities does little justice to the potential power partially evident in the actual playing) and the unfulfilled amalgam of the rhythm section (most of the times it fails to coordinate a pertinently robust foundation for the overall instrumentation). Nonetheless, Asgard's debut album deserves to be labelled as an excellent item of 90s neo-prog. Just like other reviewers before me have noted down, this album reveals the band's peculiar inventiveness despite its specific shortcomings.

One of the most unique bands of the early-80's Italian prog scene,ASGARD were formed in their original form in 1987 in Treviso,featuring Massimo Michieletto on guitars,Marco Michieletto on drums,Glauco Giacchello on bass and Alberto Ambrosi on keyboards.The band promoted themselves through magazines,TV/radio show and live gigs and participated in two compilations, ''Italian rock invasion'' and ''Exposure 88''.Giachello left to be replaced by Chris Bianchi d'Espinosa and Kikko Grosso on vocals.With this line-up they signed with WMMS and recorded their debut '' Gotterdammerung'' in 1991.

STYLE: This is a stunning and unusual mix of dark,almost Gothic Symphonic Rock and Marillion-esque Neo Prog.Lots of floating and flashy synths combine with distorted guitars under a mysterious dark production to create a very unique soundscape overall.Kikko Grosso sounds very theatrical in a Fish-like voice costume,yet weirdly original.The mainly slow tempos help to the deepness and mysticism covering the band's compositions.Plenty of breath-taking solos all around to calm things down.Dark passages with background keys and poetic lyrics are also in the menu.A very memorable release overall.

SOUNDS/INFLUENCES: Very much influenced by GENESIS and early-MARILLION,but sounding a lot more darker than the latter.

PLUS: A pretty memorable and unique prog style.Vocals are just beautiful.Keyboard work in the vein of Mark Kelly is one of the best to be listened in the Neo Prog league and offers also many unusual Gothic-like moments.Excellent guitar work by Max Michieletto both on rhythms and solos.A superb production to support the band's style.

MINUS: There is a lot in here to remind you of old MARILLION (guitars,keys,voice).

WILL APPEAL TO: it's weird...I can't even think of any serious prog lover not to add this album in his collection.

CONCLUSION/RATING: One of the best Neo/Symphonic Rock releases of the 90's.Melodic, theatrical, delicate, mysterious and very very personal.An underrated and unfortunately overlooked masterpiece to remember...5 stars!

This first release from Asgard is rather rough and unpolished. The Gregorian chant opening to the album on Antiquum suggests that perhaps this particular neo-prog group will go for some unusual influences and lash together a novel sound; alas, what we finally get when the band let rip is a fairly mediocre sound cobbled together from the cast-off musical ideas of neo-prog legends such as Pendragon and IQ, with perhaps a pinch of early Marillion here and there to spice things up and a pronounced Genesis influence to really drive the cliches home. Zealous neo-prog fans who can't get enough of such things might find something to enjoy here; for my part, I can't hear anything on this album which hadn't been done better previously by their influences.