THE POWER AND THE GLORY

Gentle Giant has an own distinctive styl and they were so good in it that they were never beaten on their own territory. This styl is build on melodies with many silent intervals. These silent intervals are sometimes just empty and other times they are filled with other instruments also playing melodies with many silent intervals. The result is a lot of "pling-plong" layers which create the total melodie line. Because Gentle Giant was also very fond of odd timeschedules the effect is often really complex and/or bizar.

On "The Power and The Glory" Gentle Giant is playing the styl described aboth very consequently. This is a truly eclect prog record with almost no relation with other styles like folk, symhoprog, etc. The moods differ from chaotic, sinister, majestic to paranoia. Let's give an example: So Sincere starts with a sinister minimalistic violin melodie (with several silent intervals as described aboth). These violin melodies form the base for the couplets. The refrains however turn to total paranoia with a lot of instrumentation which fit in strange chaotic way, while played very tight. The change in atmosphere is gigantic (which is normal with giant's and here we just deal with the gentle kind) from minimalist and sinister to maximalistic (does this term exist?) and happy/chaotic/paranoia.

Some of the songs are great and some are just good. This record will take some time to understand, but it's worth some time.