EGO

The latest release from Polish band Millenium is probably their most complete to date, with a great deal of work having taken place on he arrangements. The five guys have also brought in some guests on backing vocals, sax and trumpet but these have been used sparingly and consequently to great effect. There are times when I find myself reminded of the way that IQ also uses a sax to great effect, bringing it is just to add a further touch of class to music that is often quite Floydian and symphonic in nature. This is in direct contrast to "Dark Secrets" which is a bouncy romp with plenty of in your face guitars and keyboards. But, that in turn leads to "When I Fall" which starts off just with piano and voice. Music doesn't need great complexity to be enthralling, and that is definietly the case here.

Millenium are not only one of the top prog bands to come out of Poland, but are one o fthe top prog bands around, period. They continue to produce high quality work album after album, and this is probably their finest achievemnet to date. I have been lucky enough to be able to hear most of their releases to date, and hopefully this will be the one that finally breaks them through to a wider audience. If you think that Riverside are the only prog band worth knowing about from Poland then your musical education is sadly lacking, and this is an album that should be high on everyone's lists to discover. Symphonic, complex, immediate, accessible, beguiling and bewitching, who could wish for more? www.millenium.art.pl

Millenium is a Polish Neo Prog band that has been together since 1999 and began as a solo project by keyboard player Ryszard Kramerski. Today the band has also Łukasz Gall (vocals), Piotr Płonka (guitars), Krzysztof Wyrwa (bass) and Tomasz Paśko (drums) in the line-up. Ego (2013) is their 9th and most recent studio album (not counting EPs and re-recordings) and it was released by Ryszard's label Lynx Music.

Before going into Millenium's music I would like to mention the magnificent artwork that Ego (2013) has. A really astonishing piece of work on the cover (by Marek Juza) and digipack design (by Maciej Stachowiak), including a CD that imitates a little LP.

Millenium has always followed the Neo Prog path and it's no different on Ego (2013), which means that keyboards and guitars are up front in the songs. Also, having Ryszard as the main writer, producer and keyboard player of the band is quite natural that his instrument is very important in the band's sound. 'Ego' the tittle-track is the first one on the album. This is a very well written piece with a bit of 'electronics' here and there, but this complements the music perfectly. Piotr Płonka and his guitars have to be mentioned cause he did an impeccable job. Great opening track!

The following track 'Born In 67' is all about nostalgia! Although the lyrics that aren't that great Łukasz Gall's vocals make them shine. The track also has many backing vocals and includes a trumpet solo (by Michał Bylica). Track 3 is called 'Dark Secrets' and it is a different kind of ballad. It's contemplative with many mini guitar solos and an absolutely brilliant final part where everything goes faster.

'When I Fall' follows the same footprints as the previous song, but this time as a piano ballad. It's a mid-tempo track that focuses on the vocals. As in the previous track, it shifts tempo to an upbeat one around the middle but then goes slower again towards the end.

'Lonely Man' has a great melody. I especially like this kind of chords changing this track has! But I think the song follows a bit of a repetitive road with the verse-chorus-verse formula, and having the song over 10 minutes this can transform a good song into a bit of a tiring one, even with the good sax solo (by Darek Rybka) in the middle! The final track on Ego (2013) is another 10 minutes piece called 'Goodby My Earth'. It starts very well with some great guitars, but once again it is a mid-tempo song which makes you feel it's still the previous track. But still, it's a strong track with lots of breaks and moods, including robots in the middle part.

I really think that Millenium could bet more on some upbeat songs like the opening track 'Ego', for instance. Nonetheless Ego (2013) is a very strong album by a hard working band and I see no reason why every Neo Prog fan would not enjoy this album! Especially if you're a guitar fan, because we have some great guitar performance throughout Ego (2013).

Recommended!

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

While the themes explored by Poland's MILLENIUM tend to the serious and downbeat, musically they tilt to the melodic axis, which seems deliberate, a hypothesis confirmed in the title of this album's successor. This does not mean lightweight, as the band incorporates majestic keys and guitars with somewhat less traditional instrumentation in the form of saxophone and trumpet guest spots. These render even the almost feathery "Born in 67" an exercise in elegance.

Like a cross between SATELLITE and PINK FLOYD fronted by STING (I didn't think of this myself), "Ego" drops the mood a few notches with numbers like "Dark Secrets", "When I Fall", "Lonely Man" and "Goodbye my Earth". All of these might have been soundtracks to ACNE-addled youths had they been released in 1973, but instead are probably commercially propelled, if at all, by nostalgic older folks who have forgotten that whitehead isn't a beach resort. It's all good, and somewhat redemptive and cathartic, although the parade of moroseness can be numbingly grey. I think most tracks would be improved with roughly a 40% haircut, but I will stop short of asserting that the band would be happy imparting a truncated message, since they do seem genuine on the matter.

MILLENIUM has established themselves as one of the more prolific aggregations in the flourishing Polish neo prog scene, but this release overflows with super ego when a titch more alter ego might have been expedient. A Floydian slip?