ARS MORIENDI

I first heard this at the height of the Swedish prog boom of the 90's and did not think much of it . Catweazle belonged to the second wave of those groups, like Ageness, White Willow and Twin Age, but Catweazle sounds different than those three.

The mellotron does not make by itself great record and this album is also loaded with them, but this has a very power pop side sometimes reminiscent of some RIO (in the Hoyry Kone way). But overall the album was relatively uninspired and it is little wonder they never made a second album (I think ;-)

This is the last one of a set of obscure neobands I wanted to discover. Obscure this is because one review and one album (from 1996) is not really one of the big names. And in fact I never heard of this Swedish band either I have to admit. Well, one statement can already be made here: not all bands from Sweden are top of the bill, there was a time I really believed that but this Catweazle: the best thing I can say is that it's interesting.

There are about nine shorter and four longer songs on this album but this difference in time length is not significant on this album. One might even say that the shorter songs are slightly better, most of them with prominent acoustic guitar and organ. The vocals are below par in my opinion and not by chance are these alternating singing and just talking in the tracks.

Maybe they should have thrown in a few fine instrumentals on this album to get a sufficient score for those like Crystal Maze did on their more or less similar release. But they had to do the vocals in practically every song. But to be frank the instrumental passages on this album are minimal and not very impressive either. Like the vocals also the instrumental bits are unusual and original same as the many "streetsounds" on many of the tracks.

Does all this make Ars Moriendi a terrible album ? Not quite, that would be a bit too harsh but if you are looking for wonderful neo prog like the big names in the subgenre produce, you'd better forget about this one. Like I said, it's interesting and a bit out of the ordinary and if you are looking for that, check this one out. But it sure isn't my cup of tea. 2 stars. (2,4)

Catweazle is one of the most unknown and in same time obscure neo prog bands coming from Scandinavia, more precise Sweden. They had a meteoric career, formed around early '90's and disbanded after they release their only single album in 1996 named Ars Moriendi or The art of dying, issued at small label APM (Ad Perpetuam Memoriam). Well this is kinda of a neo prog not very consistent in arrangements , little pale in comparation with other names from this genre but in the end not bad, at least for me. I was surprised to see such low rated, understandable this is the kind of neo prog to be listen only for fans only and I don't think many of them will be pleaseat entirely. Similar with their country fellow Twin Age or Masque, Catweazle delivers some good moments here like the instrumental Gulag, Walk on waves with the nice keybords and pleasent parts or Sun Tannes in the shadows is another worthy track, the rest are only ok nothing great nothing really bad. Btw Ars Moriendi is a concept allbum focused around a man and his problems who apper because was trapped in the russian Gulag (in many ways is quite the same with Auschwitz ), death, lost of human dignity, terrors is all about here but puted in a nicear mood the neo music gives to this album a pleasent vibration musicaly speaking. All in all a forgotten album and band aswell, not many heard about it, is understandeble yhe album is fairly ok but not breaking any grounds in their field. 3 stars from me, is ok and is just about it, strange cover art.