THE GOLD COLLECTION - THE BEST OF TRIUMVIRAT

"The Golden Collection ? The Best Of Triumvirat" is a compilation album of Triumvirat that was released in 1995. During their entire career, Triumvirat released seven studio albums. Anyway, "The Golden Collection ? The Best Of Triumvirat" has only tracks from four of those studio albums, of their second "Illusions On A Double Dimple" released in 1974, of their third "Spartacus" released in 1975, of their fourth "Old Loves Die Hard" released in 1976 and of their sixth "A La Carte" released in 1978. None of the tracks that are part of their debut "Mediterranean Tales (Across The Waters)" released in 1972, of their fifth "Pompeii" released in 1977 and of their seventh "Russian Roulette" released in 1980, were included on "The Golden Collection ? The Best Of Triumvirat". So, it has five tracks from "Illusions On A Double Dimple", three tracks from "Spartacus", four tracks from "Old Loves Die Hard" and two tracks from "A La Carte".

So, "The Golden Collection ? The Best Of Triumvirat" has fourteen tracks. From "Illusions On A Double Dimple" we have "Schooldays", "Dawning", "Bad Deal", "Roundabout" and "Lucky Girl". "Illusions On A Double Dimple" is divided into two parts, "Illusions On A Double Dimple" and "Mister Ten Percent". "Schooldays" is one of the five parts that belong to "Illusions On A Double Dimple". "Schooldays" is a shining and happy song that starts with a fantastic riff, giving a happy atmosphere condensed by the catchy vocals. Here, we have a great performance by all band's members with special emphasis to a great guitar work. "Dawning", "Bad Deal", "Roundabout" and "Lucky Girl" are four of the six parts of "Mister Ten Percent". "Dawning" is the shortest track on that album. It's a song with a beautiful piano work, performed only by Jugen Fritz. It's a kind of an introduction to the next track, "Bad Deal". "Bad Deal" is another short song. It's a very energetic track, a grandiose rocker, with great keyboard work that ends with a touch of a jazzy section with the peculiar style of Triumvirat. Helmut Kollen's bass is stronger than ever and Hans Bathelt does a great drum work. "Roundabout" is a great track with a nice rhythm section. It's a song influenced by jazz and with some dramatic changes. It really reminds me the influence of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. "Lucky Girl" is a different track from the others. It's a beautiful and soft track in a ballad style, which is probably a reference to "Lucky Man" of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I like this track because is particularly enjoyable with its musical atmosphere. From "Spartacus" we have "The Capital Of Power", "The Sweetest Sound Of Liberty" and "Spartacus". "The Capital Of Power" is a magnificent and powerful track, an instrumental epic piece that leads us into the ambient of the concept and the atmosphere and music on that album. This is an excellent instrumental musical track. "The Sweetest Sound Of Liberty" is a short ballad. This song is a kind of a break in the music of that album. But, it also keeps totally the musical cohesion on that album. "Spartacus" is a suite divided into three parts, "The Superior Force Of Rome", "A Broken Dream" and "The Finale". This is a very progressive and complex track, very powerful and full of contrasts and musical changes. It has some musical sections very frenetic where others are more soft, nostalgic and sad. From "Old Loves Die Hard" we have "I Believe", "The History Of A Mistery", "A Cold Old Worried Lady" and "Old Loves Die Hard". "I Believe" is a simple but well elaborated ballad, very powerful and with a pompous atmosphere. It has inspired symphonic musical arrangements, powerful vocals and a great chorus in the background. "The History Of A Mistery" is divided into two parts. It's a complex and progressive track with excellent composition and great arrangements. It has great splendour, very bombastic and is full of keyboards in the style of Emerson, Lake & Plamer. "A Cold Old Worried Lady" is a beautiful melodic ballad with the voice of Barry Palmer sounding well in a soft range. It's a very good, pleasant and solid track. "Old Loves Die Hard" is a soft ballad, well arranged, with a nice melody, excellently sung, with a professional performance. From "A La Carte" we have "Waterfall" and "Darlin'". "Waterfall" is a decent musical numbers, with the strong vocals of David Hanselmann leading with Jurgen Fritz in a support role of multiple keyboards. It's a nice pop song in those years. "Darlin'" is a generic and bland song, a pale of Supertramp's songs with the obvious intention to achieve the Billboard charts, which sadly for them, they never been able to achieve. So, we can say these two last songs belong to another time and place.

Conclusion: Despite some inconsistencies we can say that "The Golden Collection ? The Best Of Triumvirat" is a good compilation album of the band. It has some of their best and most prog moments that were part of their musical career, which was sometimes great but unfortunately in some others it was awful. Who knows very well the entire career of the band, like me, knows that the musical career of Triumvirat was very unbalanced. Their first four albums are prog and great, their fifth still can be considered good but the last two are simply awful. So, returning to this compilation and according to what I said before, we can say this is a good compilation album of the band. It's true that lacks to it tracks from two of their essential albums and the two last tracks are expendable. Anyway, as a whole, it has great moments.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)