BAROCK

With their second (and unfortunately last) album, Parzival is scoring a perfect pair that not even countrywoman Claudia's would never even reach to that level. The group has expanded to a quintet and even a sextet by now and this clearly let more freedom to Walter Quintus to switch from strings to keys. Again this album is produced by professional giant Conny Plank.

Again oddly enough, the CD album starts with a bonus track (the B-side from same single as on the first album CD version) but clearly the track is not quite as superb even if it has choir in it. The overall feeling of the album is clearly more towards a rockier sound, as experienced on the short Celtic track stories. Lenghty track Black Train reaches more in psych and prog moods and it has some astounding moments reminding you of a cross of ELO and The Trees (yes, that good;-) and finding its end only in chaos. Following Mrs Virgin has singing between family's Chapman and VDGG's Hammill. The album's title is an apt one because the mood is definitely more baroque in here as can be seen by the strange (and slightly gothic but orgiastic) Frank Supper, but another peak is reached with the uncanny Scarlet Horses which contrast starkly with the previous two tracks yet has you begging for it not to end. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the very aptly-titled It's A Pity, is just that (well not that bad, either but the pun was worth it;-), quickly offset with another superb track Thought, built in its start a bit like Eleanor Rigby, but quickly building into a wild flute jam before suddenly jumping into a slow but delightful Ritournelle and off to a devilishly fast ending: flabbergasting!!!! The lenghty Paradise is yet another outstanding moment and would be THE highlight on almost any other album from some other group, but here it is just another track. When abundance is a problem.. lol

The two bonus demo tracks (this time from 70) compared to the first album's bonus tracks are much more in phase with the album they are included in, and are of great added value and do almost not have that demo edge.

Overall this second album is not quite as perfect as the debut, but maybe more inventive and certainly just as essential. In its craziness, this might only be topped by Comus, Jan Dukes De Grey and the superb debut of Tea & Symphony's Asylum For The Musically Insane. Another must in the realm of Folk Prog.

I'm still waiting to find their highly praised, legendary LEGEND-album,but after listening to this one I can't tell how disappointed I was. Certainly it has its great moments like in "Black Train", "Scarlett Horses" or "Thought" with awesome flute and violin play, but these are far too sparse on this album. There's too much stuff on like plain and straight folksy psyche pop songs ("Souls Married To The Wind","Stories ", "It's a pity") plus some odd latin grave speaking ("Mrs. Virgin") or just ambient noise ("Frank Supper"). All this doesn't make up an essential album in prog folk let alone a masterpiece. I mean how many pipes you've got to smoke in order to enjoy this album on a whole? "Paradise " is a quite good one as well, so finally there's about 60 % enjoyable outcome from this work if compiling all those songs which is (at least for me) just good enough to give a 3-star rating. As usually the extra bonus songs couldn't do anything to improve my impression (rather the opposite).

A rather odd German group with a mixture of styles, Parzival released two strange albums. This one's all over the map, starting with a breezy psych pop song (a bonus track) before diving in a melange of songs that veer from flute-driven, Tullish rockers to folky tunes, baroque influences to prog rock, even featuring a mellotron at times. The singer's style is pleasantly abrasive in the Peter Hammill or Arthur Brown sense that may not appeal to some listeners. It certainly is an adventurous album with lots of violin and flute, although it is hard to pin down exactly what style the group was trying to pursue, which is not necessarily a bad thing at all. I do prefer the more tuneful, laid-back moments like the first track and "Scarlet Horses", but's a personal taste. It's definitely an interesting record for psych listeners to absorb and a nice contribution to the German psych scene.

Sadly this album was a highly irritating listening experience for me. In my opinion "Barock" contains just boring poppy rock music with folk elements included, and the tracks lack the romantic mystery and such emotional approach which would appeal to me. The careful details are homogenized with the destructive basic 4/4 drumming backed up with in my opinion quite naive melodies. This bunch of fellows dressed up in live action roleplaying clothes can't reach my mind and appreciation. But though this album (and band) was not my cup of tea, some other listeners have enjoyed this album much more, so the appreciation of this album is surely only a question of style, as technically the record has been done well. I wouldn't recommend anybody to buy this blindly, but give it a listen first, and most preferably to their first album "Legend" instead of this if there is such possibility.

"Legend" was a true classic but this one has something disappointed. The psych-folk medieval sound of their debut has gone to let the place to hippy folk pop ballads and dances. I highly regret the absence of dark, mystical middle age epics that were so delicious on the first effort. Off course this album is pleasant to listen to but it sounds terribly mainstream and dated. "Stories" is a folk ballad with country violin, pop vocals and rustic flute melodies. "Frank Supper" is a sweet psychfolk instrumental, a nice "nostalgic" folky interlude before the old rocking "Scarlet Horses" and its poppy lyrical dimension. The luminous "It's a pity" is really closed to beat pop music with acoustic, folkish arrangements. The dynamic and country like "Thought" contains a nice avalanche of flute solos accompanied by folk violin playing. The eccentric and moody "Paradise" culminates the album, including "Peter Hammill" like vocals, strange & constantly changing harmonies. This album is really optimistic and naive! Despite that Parzival is a German band, "Barock" just sounds as English folky & proggy mediocrities.