NUTCRACKER IN FURY

I have gotten a huge dosage of scepticism towards Russian symph prog projects. Most of them, if not all of them, contains one nutty professor on tangents which creates symphonic music based on old classics. Sooner or later.....make that sooner, one of these nutty professors is going to blow this planet to pieces. You have all been forewarned.

Aviva is one of these bands with a nutty professor at the tangents. Or rather a massive talented musician who has got good training in the excellent Russian music environment. Russia probably has the best musicians training in the world and that shows. Well, at least in the symph prog genre. The name of the excellent musician and tangent player in Aviva is Dmitri A. Loukianenko. He may be or may not be a nutty professor though. If you read this, that is a compliment and not an insult.

The name of this album gave me impression that this was another "rock up a classic" album with minimum input from the band. My enthusiasm for this album from the outset was not present. I am glad, very glad to report that I was in for a huge surprise.

Yes, the play from Tchaikovsky get some decent feature during the forty minutes long album. But Aviva spins their own take or even own music around this world famous and much loved piece of music. Aviva's own music takes up 70 % of this album and they only returns to Nutcracker now and then as they use Nutcracker as the narrative, the story teller on this album. That certainly raised my eyebrows and made my sit up an take notice.

Aviva treats Nutcracker with due respect and I have nothing but praise for that. So let's move onto Aviva's own composed music. Let me point you to the name of the album. The album title Nutcracker in Fury describe the music here almost perfectly. The music is very heavy at times and Dream Theater is a good reference to some of the music here. There are also others more tender, pastoral themes and melody lines here too.

The end result is a great album with a lot of intricate details and melody lines. It is an album with a long longviety and life in my stereo rack. It is also the best Russian symph prog album I have ever heard too and that by some country miles. Aviva and Dmitri A. Loukianenko deserve a lot of credit and admiration for this great album. 4 stars