THREE TIMES SEVEN ON A PILGRIMAGE

This album is a very good compilation of three previous 7" singles and additional material from 1996 to 1999. The cd includes good covers of Pink Floyd(Let There Be More Light ), Syd Barret (If It'S In You ) and Jefferson Airplane (White Rabbit ) - showing psychedelic influences - and King Crimson (Epitaph) -prog influence. Incredible atmosphere created by the two guitars and effects, good and variable drums work. My favs among the original songs of the band are "Karmakosmik" and "Mourning the Death of Aase" with delightful vocals of Synne "Soprana" Larsen. Unfortunately IN THE WOODS. disbanded in 2000! Highly recommended.

This was a quite good but not really essential compilation by great Norwegian band IN THE WOODS meant as a kind of tribute to psychedelic music. It's comprising amongst others of a couple of cover versions like Syd Barrett's "Let There Be More Light", Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and King Crimson's "Epitaph", most of which worked out quite successful apart from the second one which doesn't work, at least not for me. Even the female vocals don't sound pleasant here to my ears though obviously the same singer as on their other albums is performing them. Whereas she sounds really great with her wordless vocals on "Mourning The Death of Aase" which has a nice Floydian touch starting in a rather slow blusey rhythm and developing great dynamics later on. This track fits on here much better than on their (undoubtedly strong) debut I've to say. The remaining six tracks on here have been either released before on 7'' or planned to be. Best ones from those are "Karmakosmik" which is a slow and very mournful one and "If It's In You" which is as well a very slow and acoustic song with some oddly sounding vocals and background noise with laughter at its end. Most pointless and redundant track is "Soundtrack For Cycoz 1st Ed" IMHO which is an unsuccessful experiment of some boring ambient electronic sound. "Seed of Sound", a short one with jangling guitar sound, "Child Of The Universal Tongue" which is a decent gothic rock song and "Empty Room" combining acoustic guitar with ambient music are quite good tracks, but of course by far not on par with anything from their masterpiece "Omnio".

Coming to a conclusion we get here a quite nice disk with one or two highlights which is certainly of interest if one owns already all official releases from this exceptional band. But overall I would say it's not to be considered an essential addition.

This album contains some excellent songs that complete the career of a unique band which found their own sound and imposed themselves as a strong point in the norwegian avant-gardist landscape. As usual, every song must be entered. The covers are very well captured, very nice. The band is mature and as good as always. The album is of course a bit different from their precedent works, it's mostly a tribute to prog music rather than a homogenous personnal album - but it's very far from being a collector thing. Splendid.

I initially posted a rating for "Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage" on the related site Metal Music Archives. Then I decided I should rightfully include a review of the compilation as well. However, I couldn't determine how to edit my post. I realize this doesn't have much to do with reviewing this compilation on Prog Archives; I simply wanted to draw general attention to the problem. Over all, "Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage" is a fine album by a band that was not prolific enough; I would give it 3 and 1/2 stars.

This compilation consists of cover versions and unreleased original songs by the unique experimental metal band In The Woods.... For my money, the originals turn out a whole lot better than the covers. IMO a cover version of someone else's song should differ from it in ways that are interesting. Occasionally, a cover version can actually be better than the original. The cover versions of Syd Barrett, King Crimson, and Jefferson Airplane offered here are too close to the originals; not a problem you would expect to encounter with In The Woods... The original songs turn out much better. "Karmakosmic" and "Mourning the Death of Aase" are my personal favorites, but it's all good. Despite my reservations about the cover versions, In The Woods... always made interesting, enjoyable music in their too brief career. "Three Times Seven On A Pilgrimage" is no exception.

This album is a letdown to me comparing to their previous outstanding albums because of multiple reasons: 1.) There isn't very strong musicianship and creativity. 2.) Cover songs are way behind their originals. 3.) Lack of cohesion and own spirit in the music.

Having said that, guys still remain authentic and belong to the more interesting bands in atmospheric metal. I prefer much more their original songs than cover versions which are only interesting when heard initially. "Karmakosmik" and "Mourning The Death Of Aase" are highlights for me here. "Soundtrack For Cycoz 1st Ed" is completely out of the album's spirit and show electronic attempts at movie music.

Good but definitely not essential.