LIVE ABORTION

I have to say that I like this German band more than average. When you think back to the very early seventies, they were talking about some taboo stuff like abortion amongst a lot of other things. Originating from Germany, this type of "protest" position is pretty much respectable.

Of course, during their very long career, some of their albums were not great; but globally "Birth Control" produced far much good albums than average ones.

This live album (the latest to date) is probably not their best one. It was taped from the soundboard during the "Bäng" tour (three songs from this album are featured). Some very good songs like the Sabbath opener "Another Death" (from "Deal Done At Night") are present. Fully doom metal oriented, heavenly heavy, slow paced and so powerful. A great song.

Songs as "Greedy Eyes" and "Don't Call Me Up" are great rockers. Fully loaded with energy and an orgy of guitars and during the latter, the so recognizable and heavy organ work is shining alright. But things are getting a lot worse with the funky "Pick On Me". Over eight minutes of useless music (even if Bernd Noske, one of the founding member is performing a good drum solo).

Several songs from this live set do not belong to the best of their repertoire and it has a direct impact on the overall quality of this album.

Nonetheless, as a present we get "The King Of An Island" which is an excellent hard-rock song. The mood is on the slow end of the scope, fully melodic and there are two EXCELLENT guitar breaks. An orgy of wonderful electric solo. Probably the best moments of this whole live set. Exceptional my prog friends. Really inspired.

We'll get the traditional "Gamma Ray" which has been featured on any of their live album. It can be considered as a kind of "Locomotive Breath" for Tull. Can they escape from it? Probably not. The bonus and unreleased track "Meta ventilator" is not bad but probably half of it would have been enough.

This live set is not the work to start with if you would like to discover this good German band. Average record, which means five out of ten. OK, I'll upgrade it to three stars for all the good moments that the band has offered.