THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT - A SYNPHONIC COLLECTION

THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: A SYNPHONIC COLLECTION is one of those various artists releases that I decided to pick simply because of a couple artists involved despite not knowing many of the others involved in the project. Those artists were Daal and Nexus. Two eclectic symphonic bands that have kept my attention time and time again. As expected the two tracks by them are outstanding and worth the price of admission alone, however what was most unexpected is that I find every track on this sprawling triple disc album to be worth having, albeit some are far superior to others. The majority are really very good and I am quite happy to have purchased this release despite my usual dislike for such projects where more often than not it is only a few select tracks that warrant heightened enthusiasm and mental orgasmic activity.

I was also surprised to learn that this is actually the 19th release of a lofty ongoing collaboration between The Finnish Progressive Music Association and Musea Records. The idea is to pick a concept and ask various bands to write a track within the parameters of its subject matter. Although I have not yet savored the fruits of the other installments in the grandiose project, I have to admit that if they are anywhere close to being as enjoyable as this release then sign me up for MOOORE!!! Despite the unfounded fears that the thematic unification would be a total train wreck of clashing sounds and ideas, the total opposite rings true with THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: A SYNPHONIC COLLECTION.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was, of course, the author who haunted pulp magazines and lived a most eccentric life before he died in poverty due to the fact he never made it big during his lifetime but had great success posthumously. He was obsessed in his stories with forbidden and occult knowledge. The characters in his stories were seekers of dark and esoteric wisdom often meeting their own demise by going just a tad too far in their quest. The music on this release perfectly represents these themes and I am utterly amazed at how well it holds together despite the twenty bands existing in seemingly different corners of the symphonic prog realm.

The album just bursts into your consciousness with the first attention grabbing track by The Samurai Of Prog and continues throughout the entire 02:58:25 duration. This was love at first listen with a few tracks seeming a little lackluster but only in comparison to the better ones. I have never been a huge Glass Hammer fan and I have to admit it's one of my lesser faves here but like I said, there is no bad track here. Only outstanding and very good. Most tracks are instrumental and the few that aren't incite LOVECRAFT's poetry and literary themes. I am happy to say that my favorite band on here Daal is the one who carries the weight of his most popular tale "The Call Of Cthulu" where they deliver their appropriate creepy symphonic take on it. There is no need to go through this track by track and I would bore you to tears if I did. All I can say is that this is one massively brilliant behemoth of well-LOVECRAFT-ed symphonic prog going on here.

Of the bands I know well including The Samari Of Prog, Glass Hammer, Jinetes Negros, Daal, Nexus and Simon Says, I have to say that they deliver their best here and all the other bands I have not yet encountered give me a gleeful introduction to their particular sounds that warrant further exploration. The musicianship on here is outstanding and the tracks really spice it up so as to keep the theme unified over the need for self-expression yet every track is clearly by a different musical entity. GREAT stuff on this one.

In case you're wondering here is the whole list of Colossus Project released so far:

Tuonen Tytar: A Tribute To Finnish Progressive (2000)

Kalevala - Finnish Progressive Rock Epic (2003)

The Spaghetti Epic - Six Modern Prog Bands For Six Seventies Prog Suites (2004)

Odyssey - The Greatest Tale (2005)

The Colossus of Rhodes (2006)

The 7 Samurai - The Ultimate Epic (2006)

The Spaghetti Epic 2 - The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (2007)

Treasure Island (2007)

Giallo! One Suite for the Murderer (2008)

The Empire and The Rebellion (2008)

Dante's Divine Comedy Part I - Dante's Inferno (2009)

Dante's Divine Comedy Part II - Purgatorio (2009)

Rökstenen - a Tribute to Swedish Progressive Rock of the 70's (2009)

The Spaghetti Epic 3 - The Great Silence (2009)

Tuonen Tytar-A Tribute To Finnish Progressive Rock Of The Seventies - Volume Two (2009)

Iliad: A Grand Piano Extravaganza (2010)

The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe: A SyNphonic Collection (2010)

Decameron-Ten Days In 100 Novellas - Part I (2011)

THE STORIES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT: A SYNPHONIC COLLECTION (2012)

Decameron - Ten days in 100 novellas - Part II (2014)

Marco Bernard made the concept for this project, and invited many exceptional bands to execute it. The booklet is worth summarizing. a) 32 pages that tells a bit of Lovecraft life and work; b) has all the lyrics, the instrumentation/members; c) has one photo of each group. As I predicted before buying this triple CD, many tracks are different one from another. Generally speaking, I don't expect such effort as able to conceive a firm and good concept album. For my surprise, it has a bunch of songs with enough similarities on the mood and proposal, giving the work a considerable cohesion; specially on the first CD. That's essentially why it's the Colossus/Musea project (there are others: Dante's Divine Comedy, the Decameron trilogy, etc) that I most like from the one I've heard.

Most of the groups search for a tenebrous mood. In this regard, I higlight the tracks 1, 2, 3 from CD1, 1 from CD2, and 2 from CD3. Anyway, this is pursued in other parts of this accomplishment. Some executions are more sunny, for instance what Ars Ephemera and Atillio Perrone achieved. The bands that transforms the vocal(s) in a storytelling are more succesful on making the listener dive into the music. Samurai of Prog does it brilliantly, and Sithonia makes it very well.

On CD2, there are three sung languages (two in english, one in spanish and one in italian) that don't match very well. But fortunately this isn't a big problem, because most of the music on this disc is instrumental. Note: I didn't pay attention nor read the lyrics.

Musically, there are only three weak tracks. To my satisfaction, the last ones. On the other side, there are some outstanding tracks. IMO. I prefer not to comment them, only exceptionally; I'll just rank the tracks from 0 to 10.

The Samurai of Prog ? The Case of Charles Dexter Ward ? 10.

Glass Hammer ? Cool Air ? 9.5.

Karda Estra ? The Haunter of the Dark ? 9.3.

Unitopia ? The Outsider ? 9.5 (superb vocal harmonies).

Simon Says ? The Wailing Wall ? 8.7.

Jinetes Negros ?Hypnos ? 8.

Blank Manuskript ? Beast in the Cave ? 8.5.

La Coscienza di Zeno ? Colofonia ? 7.3 (the recording quality isn't good).

Guy Leblanc ? Beyond the Wall of Sleep ? 8.4.

Ars Ephemera ? The Other Gods ? 7.4.

Attilio Perrone ? Topi nel Muro (what a nice surprise!) ? 9.2.

Ciccada ? The Statement ? 7.

D'accorD ? The Doom that came to Sarnath ? 6.8 (a better vocalist would fit well).

Sithonia ? I Gatti di Ulthar ? 7.7.

Daal ? The call of Cthulu ? 7.5 (starts genius, but gets repetitive and too long on the second half.

Kate ? Dream: quest to the unknown Kadath ? 7.5 (could be shorter).

Nexus ? The Colour out of Space ? 7.

Safara ? Calendimaggio ? 5.5.

Aether ? Mountains of Madness ? 4.5.

GOAD ? At the Mountains of Madness ? 5.2.

In a scale of 5, I give the whole effort a 4.1.