PILGRIMAGE

With such brilliant debut, WA had their hands full to live-up to their burgeoning reputation, and if Pilgrimage is not quite as brilliant as the two albums around their chronological discography, it certainly still full of merits with some real superb moments. Again a gatefold artwork, they missed out on an astounding idea, with not using the image on the front cover over the full spread of the cardboard. One of the more noticeable things about the album are the shorter tracks and the longer one The Pilgrim (8 min+) has a rather overlong and a rather uneventful intro.

With the impressive opener Quo Vadis, WA shows that they have become even tighter than before and they use some of the best scatting I was given to hear on a hard-driving beat: this will become a trademark of theirs for a few years to come. Once the lenghty intro over with, the (sort of) title track actually swings into a typical WA swing that they were becoming so famous for, and once the three vocalist get into their scatting, the track is really take you places that all progheads love: paradise. Jailbait is clearly a return to the rockier (and macho) tracks of the first album, while two short instrumental tracks hold not much interest outside of the fact that they exist and are correct; but that's about as much as can be said of Alone and Lullaby!! Another highlight of the album is the enjoyable Valediction, but once again, you feel that came close (but no cigar) to perfection, but never quite reached it. The usual great drumming, complementary dual guitars and incredible bass works are still among the major asset of the album.

Even if less impressive than the superb self-titled debut and the Argus magnum opus, Pilgrimage is a must for anyone investigating the early stages of this group. So if this album failed to answer expectations from the fans, ecstasy was around the bend with their following album, which is still unanimously recognized as their masterpiece in four decades of music.

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