MYTHS & LEGENDS

3.5 stars. Another album that isn't worth 4 stars in my opinion, but man there's lots to like here. OSIRIS are from the tiny island country of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. I'm not sure how "open" it was there as far as hearing the outside World's music goes in the 70's. But members of this band have studied abroad and certainly have been exposed in that way to Prog etc. It's cool seeing the Arabic names of the band members, reminds me of RAHMANN.

"Myths & Legends" is album number two for this band, released in 1984. Similar to their excellent debut but a step down almost in every way. They lost two members who had to concentrate on their studies, and one of the replacements names is Debby Moss. What?! The music is light and symphonic in the CAMEL style. Smoothed over for sure when compared to their debut. This is very much a keyboard driven album with some pleasant guitar.

We get six tracks and the first half is quite catchy, but they raise the bar on the second half with those final three songs. The first side keeps this from being a 4 star album in my opinion. The second side begins with "Dreams Of A Jester" which makes me laugh because the one repeated section reminds me of FRUITCAKE(the band) haha. "Wasted" recalls the debut. More of this please. While the standout track might be the closer "Who Remembers". It's all instrumental, and my favourite sections of this album are those long instrumental passages which we get plenty of.

I was really surprised to see OSIRIS had released a studio album in 2020 called "Take A Closer Look", which is getting higher rating than their debut! Good for them. This one is good but far from great.