ENDANGERED

Well, after 17 years the german group Epidaurus came back with this CD. Make no mistake, their sound changed, a lot! And not for the better, unfortunately. Actually it is not bad music, but it is a completely different band, even if they managed to reunite practically everyone from the original outfit after all those years. Most of the stuff here is simply too popish. Which is a pity really, since it is obvious they are terrific musicians and Christiane Wand has a beautiful voice.

The quality of their material is quite uneven too, jumping from prog to electronic to pop without warning. It lacks direction and personality, as many tracks seem to be done by a different bands at times. Some songs are nice (October 1919 and Between The Lines, for instance are fine pop tunes, the former kind of a Genesis instrumental circa 1978 and the latter reminds me of Renaissance around the time of Song For All Seasons). But sometimes they just blow it (Seed Your Heart is just terrible).

Conclusion: you better listen to this record before you even consider buying it. Although - for my taste - not a complete disaster, it is nothing like their promising, symphonic and very good debut in 1977. Two stars.