MOTHER UNIVERSE

The debut album of this German was just excellent. An all instrumental great piece of music by all means. I was a bit afraid to listen to this follow-up since vocals were involved (and this hasn't been the strongest department of German bands). But my worries were quite erased while I discovered the superb opening song: "Mother Universe" displays some very melodic parts, great mellotron and some decent (even if not great, I admit) vocals in English. It is a sweet symphony of about nine minutes.

The next track is features a wild instrumental intro which could not the cup of tea of many progheads but it needs to be investigated. It is almost hard to heavy rock and to my standards, it could have been developed as such but we'll get some symphonic parts instead (of which a vocal part that could have been skipped). The wild section (almost punkish!) gets back at the end of this crazy song. Another good moment though.

The pastoral and folkish "Shakespearesque" is somewhat weaker but the inspiration gets back with "Dedicated To The Mystery Land": again the intro is gorgeous and highly hard/psyche oriented.

Like during "Brainstrain", the song evolves into a more symphonic approach for a short while. Some great and frenzy guitar are topping the second part of this excellent track. The third highlight.

The two remaining songs are quite average and are dragging down my rating to three stars. Still, this is a good album that would need some more exposure.