THE ? TRUTH

This is the final part of the trilogy, which started almost 15 years ago. The music is a kind of "rock opera," with 12 characters played by vocalists. You can hear a tonal variety throughout the album, with females and males singing clean and death vocals. We have a combination of delicate and heavy parts punctuated with dramatic crescendos. Sometimes you can hear the influences of the melodic style of Neo-Prog bands; at other times, it's the influence of the prog metal bands with some well-placed heavy guitar riffs and guitar solos. It's like the band has created their patchwork of music in their own unique way because there are many shifts in tempo and style. The atmosphere of the album can go from ambient to spacey and prog-metal. There is also a lot of attention paid to the arrangements, the choice of instruments, and some narration to tell the story. The use of piano and saxophone in contrast with the guitars and synths comes back many times throughout the album. It's like the music won't stay in a specific style for too long. I feel that I was on a journey of great music, passing through different moods ("Seven") but always with enough intensity to keep my attention until I reach the door...

SEVEN STEPS TO THE GREEN DOOR emerged as far back as 2004 in the East German city of Chemnitz led by the ever talented keyboardist / saxophonist Marek Arnold formerly of bands such as Artrock Project, Toxic Smile, Cyril, Damanek and others. After the band released its first two album Arnold steered the band into a more adventurous direction by taking on an entire trilogy based around a concept of a protagonist named Samuel and his father and a cast of 12 characters that delves into the world of religious fanaticism, a trait often touched upon by Ian Anderson on classic Jethro Tull albums of the 1970s.

The ? trilogy began in 2011 with "The?Book" that initiated the religious fanatic concept by Thoralf Kloss which came with a complete storybook authored by the American George Andrade with multiple musicians participating in the form of a rock opera. The second part "The?Lie" emerged eight years later and not only continued the overarching theme but delivered a more robust delivery of compositional fortitude and took SEVEN STEPS TO THE GREEN DOOR a few paces closer to that elusive doorknob! After a whopping 15 years after the project was initiated the band finally returns with the third edition and sixth album overall with THE?TRUTH which concludes the entire narrative in fine form.

The 12 characters and singers include many prog veterans including Peter Jones (Camel, Tiger Moth Tales), Manuel Schmid (Stern Combo Meissen), Larry B. (Toxic Smile) and Elisabeth Markstein (Alphaville). The band has remained consistent with Ulf Reinhardt (drums, percussion), Robert Brenner (bass) and Martin Fankhänel (guitars) joining Marek for this conclusion as well as three additional musicians and the fifteen vocalists participating in one form or another. The album features ten tracks that are just shy of the 72-minute mark of playing time and the music follows the band's usual recipe of melding symphonic prog and neo-prog crossover aspects with moments of fully adrenalized progressive metal including a few surprising death growls performed by the grandfather courtesy of Micha Heinzig.

Sounding something like a less metallic Ayreon offering, THE?TRUTH captures the essence of a bonafide rock opera with all the narrative trials and tribulations that the storyline unfolds along with a musical procession of crafty art pop punctuated by more feisty moments of guitar crunch in upbeat metal mode. Clever uses of musical motifs offer supplemental emotional tugs to the storyline and the album flows fairly consistently from beginning to end with nary a hiccough derailing its trajectory to conclude the trilogy with a climatic thunderous crescendo. With strong art pop hooks fortified by stellar prog rock workouts, musically speaking THE?TRUTH delivers the goods in the form of a well produced modern rock opera with a meandering musical accompaniment to the storyline at hand with a few jazzy saxophone moments finding their way into the otherwise rock oriented musical flow.

Overall THE?TRUTH is a decent conclusion to one of Germany's most lauded melodic contributions to the world of crossover symphonic prog however i tend to find rock operas in general to be a little cheesy especially during the slower moments where the male and female vocals have a discussion and the music is set to a simmering ballad. The more upbeat moments however are quite satisfying and the overall dynamics are well constructed offering a nice mix of sounds that keep the album from stagnating. In the end i find the album to be a bit too long for its own good but then again i'm not really interested in the storyline as much as others probably will be. I'm into the music first and in that department THE?LIE is very strong indeed. A very cleverly constructed conclusion to the ambitious trilogy that is very satisfying but in the end i wish it was edited down just a tad to remove some of the more lingering moments

It has taken more than a decade to get here, but finally we have the conclusion of the trilogy which started in 2011 with 'The ? Book' and was followed up with 2019's 'The ? Lie' where we could see the cover of the book getting slightly ripped, now fully revealed as 'The ? Truth'. It is the band's sixth album, and of the band's four musicians only two have returned, who have both been there since the beginnings in 2004, in Marek Arnold (keyboards, saxophones, Seaboard) and Ulf Reinhardt (drums & percussion) and they have been joined by Robert Brenner (bass) and Martin Fankhänel (electric & acoustic guitars). This is a story of religious fanaticism and to bring it to life they have used 15 singers, many of whom are returning to roles they played last time such as Lars Köhler (Samuel), Peter Jones (Father), Anne Trautmann (Evangeline) and Jana-Christina Pöche (Mother).

I have been a fan of Marek's music for many years, not only in SSTTGD but Toxic Smile, Damanek, Cyril, Artrock Project etc and his combination of keyboards and saxophone always lifts whoever he is involved with (I still firmly believe Artrock Project's "Stay" is a true classic). However, this album finds him lifting his contribution to new heights as this is an album which screams "class" from the beginning to end. True, some of the guitar riffs in "Revelations" follow a descending path we have come across previously, but they provide the perfect emphasis to what is taking place above. This is neo prog bursting out of the sub-genre and showing people just what can happen when it is in the hands of people who truly have a clear direction and know exactly what they want to achieve. It is multi-faceted and multi-layered and I have had difficulties getting off my player as each time I listen to it I find more to discover, from the xylophone here, the African shuffles there, and even a trip into territory which is more akin to metal than anything remotely prog. This is very much deep inside Clive Nolan territory, but with a different palette, bringing to life a complex story with music which is melodic and engaging. To my ears this is easily their best work to date and while it would make send to start with The ? Book' this is still thoroughly enjoyable even if you have not come across the others.