THE GHOSTS OF PRIPYAT

I have been a Marillion fan over many years and I was very glad to hear that the guitarplayer of Marillion, Steve Rothery finally had launched an album. The Ghosts of Pripyat is an instrumental album. No singing at all and I think that is nice. The album features the legendary Genesis guitar player, Steve Hackett on a couple of tracks. The album is about the ghosttown Pripyat in Ukraine that was abandoned after the Tsjernobyl nuklear disaster. The album opens with the track Morpheus featuring Steve Hackett. It opens with a very nice quiet guitar playing together with a quiet Pink Floyd'ish synth. This is one of my favourite tracks of the album. It has av strong melody line and it takes it very easy. They are not in a hurry. It moves slowly forwards and it is melodic. You can somehow feel the mood from Pripyat as it moves forwards. After a while a piano comes in playing very nicely. The rest of the track is solo guitar. Very strong track! Kendris is the second track. It opens with a quiet clapping sound together with a quiet guitar. This track is more rytmic and uptempo. Also a nice track. The third track Old man of the seas is more than 11 minutes long is also a very strong track. Opens with the sea rolling in and then a quiet guitar. Then some harmonica. All very quiet and slow. Steve Rothery is not in a hurry. And thats good. He is just a great guitar player and has a sense for harmonic lines. This track also features Steve Hackett. They play extremely well together. After a while the theme changes, but it is still slow. After about 8 minutes the pace changes to a more uptempo music line and there is a keyboard coming in. In the last part of the record both Hackett and Rothery plays together and it will climax in the end. I think this is the best track of the album.The next track is White Pass and it opens quiet with a guitar and then of course more guitar. A bit more uptempo in the beginning with the drums playing a special rythm. After approx 5 minutes it changes into a heavy guitar sound and also changes rythm. It is more heavy but still melodic. After a while the solo guitar comes in together with the heavy riff in the background. Also a good track, but not as good as the others before. The next track Yesterday's Hero opens with a slow rythm and guitar also rather laid back and quiet. After a while Rothery takes it up to a higher tempo and the solo guitar gets harder and stronger. Also a nice track but not as good as the others. The next track Summer's End opens very slow. The guitar is quiet. After approx 5 minutes the mood changes and the tempo is faster and the guitar gets harder. The rest is faster and heavier and gets stronger and stronger. The title track and the last track The Ghosts of Pripyat opens with a 12 string guitar. This is the shortest track. After a couple of minutes he changes to electric guitar, more than one. In the end it gets harder and harder. Also with a synth playing. In the end the solo guitar is playing and more guitars and synth. This is a great album and is absolutely worth buying. I am already looking forward to the next one.