SCHIZOPHRENIA

The name Shamall is not new to me. But whenever I was told that it is electronic music, my interest to continue working with them felt asleep. I am really not a fan of electronic music. Everything is too similar to me, not enough power in it. But with Shamall I was wrong. And I have no problem admitting it. At a party at a friend's house I got in touch with Shamall by chance. We all know this. There's a lot of talking and laughing, but in between there are moments of silence when no one says anything and you listen to the music in the background. And it was this short silence that suddenly built up something musically powerful in the room, which I couldn't assign at first. At that time i didn't know, but after a short question who that is,I got a short answer: "This is the new Shamall! I was surprised, I could not find the newage and electronic music in this exciting music, which immediately fascinated me. "This is Schizophrenia, the title track of the new Shamall" my buddy shouted to me "That rocks, dude, wah" Sure, there were some electronic parts, between or at the end of several songs. But I have to say - that already rocked! And there was so much more than I expected. Electronic music as intro to increase the tension for the next track. Room filling soundscapes, which were used to build up the following drama. Almost behind every song there were these magical, thrilling, often pulsating, resting phases, which only increased the expectations for the next song. Really very clever made. Sometimes punchy, sometimes hard or just great songs that started with acoustic guitars to turn later into crazy rocking great goose bumps songs. The music was professional and catching, and you could hear that the musicians were passionate about what they were doing. At least that was my first impression. What you just could perceive with the giggling from the background at a party. Next, I went to YouTube to get more info about Shamall, and was surprised what I found there. Actually Shamall had an electronic past and I even knew one song. They had made such a dull disco cracker in the 80s, which I didn't like at all. However, that must have been changed around the turn of the millennium over Krautrock into all kinds of Rock and Prog Styles. I listened to the music available at YouToube and was really impressed. "Respect! - I thought to myself - and I slept through all this?" . The Youtubeclips gave enough information to me to order the Schizophrenia Album by Shamall straightaway. A few days later, the postman brought me an incredibly impressive double CD digipack. The cover alone is already amazing and made me hungry for more. What more can I say? The album is running up and down in my CD player for days now. My highlights of this gifted album are the title song "Schizophrenia" which is almost 20 minutes long, beside "All The Answers" which is really good and the singer gives his best. The solo part in the song is too short for a bite. But for this I get fully satisfied in my absolute favourite tracks "It's An inconvenient Truth part I and II" and "the shape of things to come", and of course §World Of Emotions", a 12 minute long instrumental track on the second CD of the Album. Unbelievable guitar solos - Wow! And also megalong, as you rarely hear it these days. And even the synthesizer solos I like very much. Hammerstrong album! Also the other songs are very good, because somehow everything goes together as if there was only one song with different highs and lows. If you sit down and chill out a little bit and listen concentrated to the music, you'll soon notice that the band has fun at their work. They don't seem to be interested in becoming the kings of any particular style of music, and they don't seem to be interested in making music just for money. Otherwise they would probably do something different than pieces with a length between 10 and 20 minutes. This is definitely pure passion. And what you should also mention is that the Schizophrenia album sounds great. I haven't heard something so noble for a long time. You can hear it in every song. If I should describe the music now I automatically think of rock and prog bands from the past. Somehow it reminds me of the 80s, when prog rock was something natural with electronic equipment. Caravan, Camel, Alan Parsons, Manfred Man, King Crimson and of course a lot of Eloy-like and Pink Floyd send their regards. A mega-bombastic album - like I haven't heard one for a long time. An absolute must buy for everyone who likes to listen to today's music as much as I do, but where you can somehow find your whole life again.