ZED

I was blown away when I first heard this album, two massive tracks that build up like a train rolling towards you that blows your mind as it thunders past. The playing is grander, slower and more moving than the insanely-paced Trimegisto. The lyrics are entirely in Italian, which may or may not be your cup of tea--personally I love the sound, even though I don't understand what it's about. The first track, Zed, begins with a quiet, flourishing brass introduction, which is brutally crushed by a slow, heavy metal riff that sends shivers down my spine. The second track, Mnar, is more spacey and ethereal but equally powerful. I highly recommend this album to any fan of Italian progressive rock or darker bands like Magma, Eskaton, Arachnoid etc. The only downside to this album are the sometimes long-winded progressive riffs that are an inevitable part of 20min songs.

I loved this album when I first heard it. Its epic, grand scale is really special. But the more I listen to it, the more I notice the flaws. The really symphonic, classical, epic introduction sets the mood perfectly, and the crushing guitar riff thereafter keeps the energy up, but after a hundred or so repeats the simple riff does not hold up. They do change things up, though, but I think it could have been edited shorter. The silly vocals (sung in Italian) are kind of dissonant, and the annoying, daunting keyboard voices don't help. There are actually a lot of jazz influences here, I find, as a lot of Zheul has.

On the good side, there's lots of diversity in terms of dynamics and styles. Things drop from high-energy guitar led riffage, to the more serene, atmospheric, spacey sections. With a huge line of guest musicians, there's a lot of diversity in terms of the instruments that appear on the album, too. But unfortunately, poor production mocks the music, and sound quality is not noteworthy. Playing is sloppy, and execution is sometimes dry. Yet, despite all these flaws, the compositions are so excellent, the complexity is really fulfilling, and the epic feel just puts it over the top. It's quite worth a listen to avant-garde fans, jazz fans, or Zheul fans (though there is not a massive relation to Magma's music).

I have to recognize that I think Runaway Totem is one of the most obscure bands that I heard these last years. I don't know if they really fit into the Zeuhl genre because I think their music is closer to heavy prog of even fusion but... it's my humble opinion.

Maybe Andromeda is RT masterpiece but Zed has his own and particular enchant. Two long pieces (Zed in one and and Mnar in the other), more than 20 minutes each one. It seems to be a hard mission to listen both but the album slides into your ears very quick, with constant changes, the singular guitar and vocal sound of RT, some quiet and athmsopherical moments, closer to some space/psychedelic stuff, leaded by synths and female vocals and . The hard parts are still the same, obscure and repetitive, marked with fury by the drums. Obviously, some sections sounds as a total impro but in any case this sections break the continuity of the songs.

Zed is the spacy. Mnar is the heavy. Zed is the quiet. Mnar is the constant change. Both parts fits perfectly to make a solid album destinated to exquisite ears and prog fans which prefer more experimetal or heavier stuff.

A bit better than Trimegisto but not as good as Andromeda... 3.7*

My third adventure into the land of the Runaway Totem. This was an improvemnet over the debut released three years earlier. The sound is expanded here to feature an orchestra. Of the three albums I have listened to on the band's website, this one is the least Zeuhl-ish. The music here kinda sorta sounds like a mix of RPI, prog metal and Japanese Zeuhl. There is lots of Italian-style singing and heavy riffs. The album consists of two epics, the title track and "Mnar".

"Zed" begins with a very classical sounding orchestral part. Then we have a riff worthy of Black Sabbath. Wow. What an awesome riff! Around 3 minutes there is a part with female vocals that remind me of Koenjihyakkei. The section in the middle with phased Mellotron, bass, vocals and a guitar solo goes on a bit too long. Later on in this epic it gets rockin' with some nice riffs. Starts to mellow out near the end. The last two minutes sound majestic.

"Mnar" starts with the sound of aircraft flying overhead. Then a long atmospheric section. It starts to pick up with guitar later. Before 12 minutes there is some punk style guitar playing. 14 1/2 minutes we get another riff worthy of Sabbath. A piano part starts before 20 minutes. It has some vocals but think this part goes on too long. How "Mnar" ends is not as good as the way "Zed" ended.

Overall a really good album, but these guys are still not in 4 star territory for me yet. Better than Trimegisto(1993) but not quite as good as Esameron(2007). Of the two, Zed sounds closer to the latter. I can't wait to listen to their other albums; I know there's going to be at least one that will really knock my socks off. Zed deserves 3 stars.

My second dive into this band. Well, it is actually my third. I have been listening to their brand new album through our progstreaming website though. So it is about time to take a listen to their back catalogue again.

Zed is their second album. Trimesto, their first album did not impress me. But Zed is a step in the right direction. Zed is a two songs album. Each of them clocks up over twenty minutes each.

The first song, the title track Zed is at times very impressive over several themes. It includes two majestic parts, some fusion/jazz, a bit symphonic prog and some zeuhl. The final two minutes is brilliant. My overall impression is very good.

The second song Mnar is much harder with a lot more zeuhl, a lot of progressive metal and some eclectic prog too. I also like this song alot.

Sound wise, Runaway Totem has expanded to a much more orchestral sound. There are both male and female vocals here. What is kind of missing is zeuhl. Yes, the bottom line is zeuhl. But zeuhl is not what I will remember this album for. An album I really like. It is not a great album, though. But it is very close to being that. This album is also a free download from Runaway Totem's website. If you are new to zeuhl, grab this album and discover a band which really deserve some more recognition.

3.75 stars

In 1994 Runaway Totem entered their so-called Cronos phase.It comprises of significant line-up changes, the main being the departure of the Golin/Buttiglione rhythm section and the arrival of Germano Morghen aka Tiphereth on drums and Dario Gelmetti aka Nezah on bass.The most significant though was the return of Men of Lake's Renè Modena on guitars and synths.In 1996 a new album entitled ''Zed'' was released, distributed by Black Widow and featuring several guest singers and musicians on wind instruments and keyboards.

Runaway Totem continue to perform their dark and mysterious Progressive Rock, now delivered through two very long compositions.The 22-min. title track, which opens the album, is almost entirely built around heavy dual guitar attacks and offering plenty of different groovy parts, always in a dark Prog attitude, accompanied by strong breaks by the rhythm section.The guitars are quite heavy with some powerful riffs and often a CRIMSON-ian approach, while the keyboard parts are measured but always displayed with a symphonic mood.Among the instrumental madness there are lots of male and female operatic vocals and actually the middle section offers a lengthy and quite harmonic vocal performance of sheer beauty by the band.The even longer ''Mnar'' suffers from a lengthy psychedelic intro, clocking at over 4 minutes, but the rest of the track ranges from decent to masterful.Lots of complex guitar exercises, more evident use of keyboards, pounding grooves with great guitar soli and emphatic vocals produce a track, which scans the territories of complex Prog, Rock Opera and even Gothic Rock.The atmosphere remains haunting and even more grandiose, the musicianship is powerful and bombastic and the mix of Classical influences with Heavy Prog and smoother Orchestral Rock works very good.

Runaway Totem is certainly a unique group and ''Zed'' is another proof of the fact.The Italians did it very well on creating two long and tight epics and if you are after some trully atmospheric Prog with lots of haunting themes, this album was created for you.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

Until this point, links to the Zeuhl genre were generally only found in France and were burgeoning in Japan, but here come an Italian band. Runaway Totem's second album consists of two long tracks and piques the interest from the start with a classical trumpet fanfare turning into a sludgey Black Sabbath riff. The slow pace builds into a twin guitar attack with a host of male and female vocalists. The Zeuhl tropes of melancholy guitars, a mix of monotonous and harmonious vocals, and prominent drumming are all present, but there's plenty of diversity throughout. Points of difference though are that the bass is less of a feature, and there's also plenty of calmer synthesiser work too, in particular at the halfway point of the first track, where vocals are sung in Italian, in tune, and much more in RPI style. That passage lasts a full four minutes before slamming back into another heavy riff which slowly mellows out towards the end of the track. The second track begins quite differently, with a four minute psychedelic soundscape to begin with, before a long and complex, but slightly repetitive guitar section. After some Zeuhly vocals there's a fast paced classic-rock style instrumental passage which to be honest, goes on far too long. It's eventually broken when the vocal 'hey's turn into some actual lyrics (in Italian), both male and female, with the latter fairly operatic in Zeuhl fashion. First track far more interesting than the second, but worth a listen nonetheless.