PUPPET SHOW

An excellent, if somewhat obscure, slice of highly symphonic progressive rock, 'The Tale Of Woe' comes courtesy of American outfit Puppet Show, a group who have remained resolutely under the radar thanks to the fact that they have released just two studio albums in ten years of existence, thirteen if you count the three-and-a-half years since this album was released. Obviously inspired by both classic-era Genesis and Fish-era Marillion, Puppet Show's sound falls somewhere between the modern proggery of fellow yankees Spock's Beard and Sweden's impressive Simon Says, with Mike Grimes lush and complex keyboards the dominant instrumental force and Sean Frazier's low-tone vocals eschewing the usual high- pitched, squawked-jester Pete Nicholls-and-Jon Anderson-styled singing that usually comes as standard in this sub-genre. They may not sport they most original sound or feature the cunning pop edge prevalent on Spock's Beard's or Marillions more mainstream-courting material, yet somehow it doesn't seem to matter, especially when one is confronted with the jaunty, keyboard-dominated opener 'Seasons' and the epic-and-emotive sixteen-minute opus 'The Past Has Just Begun', which finds Puppet Show at their most audacious and 1970s- inspired. Hopefully it won't take another ten years for this most unique of American groups to release a third album, and this reviewer for one is waiting with breath baited. One suspects that this five- piece have probably had to do it all themselves, seeing as it ain't exactly 1972 any more, which could well explain the massive interlude. As most record companies won't touch anything that isn't a 'sure thing' these days, it seems only bland rockers, ex-Christian minstrels, R'n'B-toting diva's, idea-stealing pop-stars(I'm looking at you Madonna) and dance-orientated DJs get the studio time, so Puppet Show's next could well take a while. However, if the improvement rate shown is anything to go by, album number three should be a genuine masterpiece. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2011

Second album named The tale of woe of this californian progressive rock band named Puppet Show was released in february 2007 through progrock records after nearly a decade after the first album. The expectation were high, and for sure this album doesn't dessepoint anyone, or at least me. With 10 years older, the musicians still come with an excellent follow up, great arrangements, elaborated symphonic prog with a lots of mellotron, moog and hammond and awesome guitar parts. Opening the album with the excellent Seasons, the band throw plenty of catchy vocal melodies by Sean Frazier and brilliant guitar parts aswell. Powerful voice who manage to fit very well in this context. The vintage keybords arrangements remind me of old Genesis, when thy were in their peak, but Puppet Show manage to take those influences and wrapped them in their sound, the resul is quite great and very inventive. Only two pieces are short here, the rest 4 are lenghty and has complex musical interplay, quirky arrangements and melodic vocal parts. The Seven Gentle Spirits, The Past Has Just Begun and On Second Thought are long enough to show how great Puppet Show is in this album, intricate rhythms pattern, lush acustic guitar who interplay very strong with the rest of the passages. There is aswell an instrumental track called God's Angry Man, taken similaries with King Crimson with crunchy guitar riffs and acrobatic arrangements, maybe the heavies track from the album and the one less symphonic in elements, still good. So, they realy done it with this album, I've enjoy a lot latley this release, not a weak moment here, powerfull album, solid arrangenets, I don't really know what is the problem to be so low rated by some reviewers. I will give 4 stars easely, great album with a lot to offer, not to mention that I like a lot the cover art both front and back, great drawing who goes hand in hand with the music. This album is a great return of a band that never was popular or widely known in progressive rock circles, we hope or I hope untill now with this album.

PUPPET SHOW are a relatively new US band coming from San Jose,California with a sound deep rooted in the classic progressive rock of the 70's.They were formed in 1997 and almost immediately released their debut ''Traumatized'',being a discovery of Kinesis Label.

PUPPET SHOW won't ever win a prize for their originality,but their music is very well-crafted and performed,leading to a result which can be a fave of all vintage-prog fans.The compositions are mainly long with a variety of old analig keyboard sounds like the mighty mellotron (echoes of GENESIS,while blended with delicate acoustic guitars),the Hammond organ (slight E.L.P. influences),the moog synthesizer and the church organ.Especially fans of GENESIS will find a lot of sounds to remind them something.Despite being definitely keyboard-centered,in ''Traumatized'' you will also find plenty of soaring guitars and inspired solos in the vein of STEVE HACKETT or even STEVE ROTHERY to complete a nice soundscape of this work...and last but not least the band features a strong vocalist under the presence of Sean Frazier and his intense/dramatic vocals.''Traumatized'' ends up being a very strong release and a pleasant listening for all progressice rock fans of the old years.Recommended!

I think the biggest piece of enjoyment I got from this album was the first song, ''Seasons''. After that nothing else seems to be as new anymore. Just a rehash of what the band did on the first track. That isn't to say that the musicianship isn't top-notch, because it is, and the singer's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but there is just nothing about this that I can hear that would merit a four-star ratuing or higher. The originality is non-existant as these bguys are simply taking cues from bands such as Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes and Marillion to create 'their' sound, which is in reality nothing more than a mish- mash of all of those bands combined.

The end result is an average-quality release that is fun to listen to, but gets boring very easily, at least for me, since listen to them makes me want to listen to the original bands that Puppet Show took off of. The keyboard-heavy sound is quite sappy and after awhile began to make me ill, but luckily there IS enough guitar featured to keep the cheesiness at bay. One of the more beautiful songs is The Past Has Just Begun, which features superb acoustic guitar picking accompanied by the lead singer's powerful vocal strides. Great ballad-like feel to it. The problem is, however, as it is with most bands like Puppet Show, is that the vocal styles, guitar playing and song structures have all been recycled over and over so many times in the past that it is hard for me to take Puppet Show seriousely as a stand-alone band. However, there is enough hope here to think that if the guys keep working at it, they may end up making their own mark eventually. They just didn't do it with this album.

Not horrible, but not fantastic, either. I enjoy this album very much, but it is 'good trash', as it were. There is nothing about it that would set THE TALE OF WOE apart from any other Symphonic Prog album out there. Three stars fits it perfectly, I feel. Good, but not essential. I would recommend it to you if you like Genesis, but at times it feels like blatant copying. If you want to liste to an absolutely fantastic modern Symph Prog band, check out Echolyn. If you want some catchy tunes to use as background noise as you drive to work in the mornings, then check these guys out. Either way you can't really go wrong, as the musicianship itself is absolutely superb. I just feel that the originality is lacking, that is all.

Overall not a bad effort, but that epic 'feel' to the title and all makes me feel like Puppet Show was aiming for the next prog epic, and if that is so, then they missed the mark by miles. Qualilty playing, but only so-so music on the whole.

As was to be expected this band (and album) is being compared with Genesis and critisized as an uninteresting and unoriginal clone. Could be a veritable conclusion but another truth (fortunately stated as well by some) is that this is not a bad album at all with some pretty good compositions (The past has just begun !). The second statement is winning for me eventhough I have some critisism about the album and band as well. Main downside for me is the vocal aspect which is slightly annoying to me. The vocalist is not necessarily poor technically but it's a kind of voice that can put you off, at least that's how it works on me. Another slight disappointment is that the already mentioned track is by far the best on the album, 3 others (the longer ones) are good and the other two less.

If I make a marking for the album alltogether I come to an average of 3,6 which results in a definitive rating of 4 stars. On a bad day it could also have been 3 though.

"The Tale Of Woe" is the second full-length studio album by US, California based progressive rock act Puppet Show. The album was released through Progrock Records in 2007. It´s the successor to "Traumatized" from 1997, so it´s been 10 years since the release of the band´s debut album. There´s been one lineup change since the first album as drummer Matt Lipford has been replaced by Chris Mack.

Although it´s been 10 years since the last album, Puppet Show pretty much starts off where they let go on "Traumatized". So stylistically this is still symphonic progressive rock with neo-progressive leanings which strong ties to Genesis and Marillion. Lead vocalist Sean Frazier sounds even more like Peter Gabriel here than he did on the first album, but fortunately he doesn´t sound as strained and sometimes close to hysterical screaming as he did on the debut album. "The Tale Of Woe" also features a significantly better sounding production job than the debut album, and upon conclusion it´s in every way possible a much better album than "Traumatized" and it´s great to hear that the 10 years between the two albums were spend well on rehearsing, writing better songs, and maybe most importantly to save up for some professional recording equipment.

The clone factor is of course pretty high here and "The Tale Of Woe" is an album for those who just can´t get enough of artists and releases strongly influenced by Genesis and Marillion. If you try and look past that, "The Tale Of Woe" is definitely an album worth investigating. It´s both well produced, well performed, and well written, and everthing is delivered with the right amount of passion and conviction. a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"Traumatized" is the debut full-length studio album by US, California based progressive rock act Puppet Show. The album was originally independently released in 1997 but was picked up for a label release by Kinesis in 1998.

Stylistically this is symphonic progressive rock with neo-progressive leanings. It´s the usual suspects in Genesis and Marillion who are probably the biggest sources of inspiration for Puppet Show and lead vocalist Sean Frazier (although a bit more screaming and strained in his delivery) tries to hit the Peter Gabriel/Fish way of singing. The songs on the 6 track, 55:28 minutes long album are generally pretty long and it´s not songwriting ideas that Puppet Show are lacking. They deliver both complex instrumental parts, atmospheric melancholic parts, and hard rocking parts with omnipresent use of keyboards.

So "Traumatized" is a decent release regarding songwriting and the performances (although I have a problem with the strained delivery of the vocalist), but the sound production seriously drags the album down. This is a homemade lo-fi sounding production job if I ever heard one. It´s not terrible sounding and you can hear all details, but the instruments and the vocals aren´t placed that well in the mix, and the tone of the instruments and the effects on the vocals, just don´t sound that great. As a consequence "Traumatized" ends up sounding rather amaturish, although the material actually features quite a few interesting moments. A 2 - 2.5 (45%) rating is warranted.

Great catch, mate!

In these times dominated with by Justin Timberlake and Kanye West, a pop album has to be catchy from A-Z and must have good replay value. Here, we have a non-commercial album that has lots and lots of replay value but that's hard to get into. Puppet Show really tooked their time (10 years, sheesh!) to come up with 6 tracks that could not create a buzz in your mind­.

So what's the point then? Well, in this case, you have what we call a 'grower'; an album that will reward you not immediately...but will be rewarding someday, promess!

Judging by the cover, Puppet Show is kicking it old school like the grand masters of another time. The usual suspects are Yes and a STRONG tendency for Genesis (Selling England by the Pound period, thank you lord). Despite the fact that this album breathes Genesis by every pore, Puppet SHow is somehow giving a lot of their own stuff, reminding me of a young Enchant more than one time (especially in the vocals, song structure and guitar solos). No tracks are weak, and they're not of the same batch too. Every one seems to part from another, scoring more and more points in my book of preferences.

This is not a masterpiece nor a classic by any means, but strongly deserves more attention from proggers who searches for an old school attitude with a top notch production. With a lot of listenings (a lot, trust me), this album transforms into a sweet surprise and therefore, a great catch.

Who knows what happened with "Puppet Show" between 1997 and 2006.

When you listen to their second album, it is hard to beleive they have concentrated for about ten years to release it. In terms of music, this album is really on the hard edge limit of prog. Musicians are still skilled of course (but that's the least you can expect from professionals). Only one line-up change : the drummer. The problem being in the quality of the song-writing. Genesis influences are of course still there, but not as strong as on their first album. Vocals are still remininscent of Gabriel.

In terms of compositions, while not flirting with prog-metal ("Seasons", "Seven Gentle Spirits"), they will be poppish and poor ("Harold Cain"). This album is extremely deceiving so far. Even though their debut one was not a big deal of creativity, it displayed some great moments (fully Genesis-inspired).

Things get finally better with "The Past Has Just Begun". The longest "Puppet" composition. Totally in-line with their first album. At last a good prog song : a powerful intro, emotional vocals, very nice acoustic guitar to back up the vocals entrance. This passage is really pastoral and beautiful. What a contrast with some others uninspired songs featured on this album. The listener is back again with the Banks sounds and is only missing some great guitar breaks. Well, just be patient, because you'll get some good ones during the second half of this epic. Very melodic at times "The Past Has Just Begun" belongs to the top three of this band. The finale sounds again rather hard.

You can forget about "God's Angry Man". Heavy metal during two minutes, anf fully experimental afterwards. A pure cacophony. Press next (my advise). Unfortunately, the closing number "On Second Thought" doesn't speak to me at all (except the last section but that's only three minutes).

As I have said, I am rather disillusioned with this album. Let' s say two stars.

This band plays a fully Genesis oriented music (while they were five for most of it). The keyboards sounds are really similar while the vocalist tries to match Gabriel quite often ("Relativity" being an exception probably).

It happens that I like such bands even if in this case it might not be as strong as "The Watch" for instance. But I guess that you have the idea. If you can't tolerate that a band emanates / perpetrates this type of music this album is not for you. If, on the contrary, you fancy once in a while to listen to Genesis related music (or even more than related) I guess that you won't be "traumatized" by this album.

"Marathon" is one of my fave : a bit of "Watcher", some great guitar work and the according Gabriel vocals. Do you like this cocktail ? Needless to say that you will find PLENTY of Banks keyboard style elements in here. But this is the essence of "Puppet Show".

Surprinsingly enough, "In the Heart of man" start as a KC song (for about 2'30"). After this, we'll be reverted to some "Trespass" music (which was also strongly influenced by ITCOTCK). So, globablly, we'll remain in the same family. And it is rather nice. The melody of the chorus is very pleasant, somewhat theatrical (but not too much). The middle part is more "Wind & Wuthering" oriented. Insn't it a wonderful journey ? Another highlight.

The closing number also starts a bit different with some nice Spanish guitar notes, but after this the track will be fully in-line with the classic "Puppet Show" production. Great mellotron and synthesizers, you know like ...But to use again the "Watcher" riffs show some lack in creativity.

Compositions are mostly long ones (from ten to forteen minutes for the majority of them). They might sound irritating here and there ("The Ring of Truth" ) but I would say that this is a good album. Not particularly creative but enough to deserve three stars (in my rating system).