PAN - AN URBAN PASTORAL

Copycat, it may not be. But Pan: An Urban Pastorial is operating in the same street as these two legends. A standard that is as high as Mount Everest in my view. So does this band, who is not a symphonic prog band, manages to scale this peak ?

In short, Pan: An Urban Pastorial is an extreme ambitious project where the members of Persephone's Dream has taken a high risk of falling to their deaths. But they survived and lives to tell the tale. The reason is the strong melodies and the complexity of the songs. Don't be fooled by their "Heavy Prog" tag. This album is a true symphonic prog album. It has a wealth of various themes. The songs are intertwined. This is a seventy minutes long piece of music with intros and outros a plenty. It also have some proper songs bridged with outros and intros. Concept album, in other words.

I am not sure about the lyrics. But the band has written in their interview that it is about this Greek god called Pan coming into the world anno 2010 and discovering our use & waste culture. Pan is the Greek god for nature, btw. Yes, I can see that there is a great story line here and one that deserve to be told.

Music wise, this is a very complex album and it require a lot of time. Fourteen days in my case and around fifteen listening sessions. Don't even dream about making up your own mind about this album with at least spending ten days and ten listening sessions on it. It is that complex. The main music is symphonic prog with some sidetracking into folk, jazz, prog metal and heavy prog too. The music on this album is harder and more contemporary than on Lambs and Snow. Persephone's Dream also use both male and female vocals when telling the story about Pan. Some of the vocals is also quite operatic. Besides of that, there is plenty of tangents and electric guitars here.

Quality wise....... Persephone's Dream has managed to pull it off. Songs like Sidewalk Soliloquy and The Tears of Selene is brilliant. The rest of this album too is great. In short, this is a great concept album. Although they has made it extreme difficult for themselves. I also feel they lost their way halfway through the album. But the three closing tracks are excellent.

Persephone's Dream has made it to the top of Mount Everest. Taking into account that both Spock's Beard and Genesis lost their vocalists on their respective descents from this mountain, I would be quite worried if I was Persephone's Dream. Only time will tell if everyone make it back alive. It will be very interesting to follow the development of this band during the next years.

The packaging of this album deserve some praise too, although it has not been factored into my verdict. The whole packaging is excellent and it is nice to see that a CD buyer gets an excellent piece of art in their hands when digital downloads is becoming the norm. It is obvious that this album is a work of love from Persephone's Dream from the packaging to the music. Applause from me !!

4 stars

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