KYRIE ELEISON

Nursery Cryme part deux

I won't digress too longly about this record, if you want the vibe of early Genesis, look no further. I love the fact that the album is gritty, with a loud bass in the mix and drenched in mellotron. I like those albums that could be « the album so and so never made », and this is frankly the best emulation of old school Genesis I've heard.

The music is stunning: loud (borderline distording) and dark, fantasy oriented and theatrical. Punchy and inspired, it's difficult to be as good as Tony Banks or Phil Collins. Just try.

The illusion is prefect. I'm delightfully baffled.

Kyrie Eleison is one of the most underrated bands and this is one of the most underrated albums on this website. A lot of people seem to think Kyrie Eleison is very similar to Genesis. I would agree that there are some influences but overall, they are very unique and different then any band I've ever heard. Many albums take me multiple listens to really understand. But this album I loved right away. I have heard this album many times over the years and the magic hasn't left yet. If anything the album gets better with each listen ( if it is even possible to get better since it's already incredible ) every song on this album is a masterpiece. I'm serious. Listen and you will see for yourself.

2.5 stars. Man this was a disappointment. KYRIE ELEISON were a Symphonic band out of Austria and they released this album in 1976. Clearly they were huge GENESIS fans and the singer tries to sound like Peter Gabriel but his vocals are bad. And it's not the way he pronounces English words, I just can't handle his voice. The sound quality is not good either making this one of the rare albums that I refuse to play after just two spins.

The positives are the mellotron which is on all but one track. They apparently owned a M400 Mellotron. Give me a clearer sound and a different singer and I would be a fan I'm sure. For me it's not worth the 3 stars. This was painful.

Did you ever listen to Nursery Cryme and think "wow, I wish Genesis had made another album or two in this early style before they shifted to the polish and pomp of Foxtrot"? Well, you're in luck! Austrian outfit Kyrie Eleison's major studio album (their other release, The Blind Windows Suite, being merely an archive issue of old rehearsal tapes) is an album-length exercise in mimicing Gabriel-era Genesis in general, Nursery Cryme specifically, and the two major bookend songs on that album (The Musical Box and The Fountain of Salmacis) to be even more precise.

Lead vocalist Michael Schubert goes all-out with his Gabriel impression and is reasonably good at it, even to the point on putting on different voices in Gabriel's usual theatrical style and managing not to make this infuriatingly cringe- worthy. Gerald Krampl's keyboards are an especial highlight of the musical backing; however, the overall package suffers somewhat by rather weak recording quality, which affects the bass sounds especially badly. Still, the quality of the material here is sufficient to overcome this shortcoming, though it does stop this from being an outright masterpiece of Genesis worship.

Haters gonna hate. While some people reject Kyrie Eleison as Genesis-clone, I consider them one of the highlights o the symphonic story telling progressive rock. The Fountain Beyond The Sunrise is a masterpiece, and even influenced by Genesis, the songs are unique, and I think Genesis should be very proud to be the main influence for Kyrie Eleison, and if they could, they would probably try to steal these raw recordings as a masterpiece debut to their catalogue instead of the standard From Genesis To Revelation.

Let's start by the A Side. The first track, Out of Dimension, starts with a magnifiq symphonic intro, with a fantastic mood. The piano background when the vocal begins, teleports me to a magic landscape, and the guitar works are full of expression. That's what I call musical environment. This first song, as any other track of the album, is a lenghty one, ten minutes of trippy music, and it is full of variations. Some music passages can invade my mind hunting memories of old dreams, provoking a deep nostalgia feeling. Just close your eyes and listen to the song.

Next step is the title suite, The Fountain Beyond The Sunrise. Fourteen minutes divided into four sub sections: a) Reign b) Voices c) The Last Reign d) Autumn Song. Better than the previous track? This is amazing, but I can't say, I love both tracks. The organ, synth and stuff do the carnival and the rest of the band, drums and bass, especially the guitar, reminds me of Genesis, but not in a plagiarism form. I'm talking about progression, and play the right thing at the right time. They are very conscious of their own songwriting. The highlight of the track are the habilities of Michael Schubert, the vocalist. It's very theatrical when he changes the voice to a forced timbre according to the narration phrase and musical tone. I like to stare at this beautiful album cover and keep my imagination running with this track.

So we reached the B Side. Forgotten Words, the third track of the album, is the weakest track of the album. Not bad at all, folks. It's a track leaded by the piano. Almost nine minutes. The track gets better after the first half, with some heavy variations.

Lenny, the fourth and last track of the original album, is the beauty of the B Side. Seventeen minutes. Right after the intro, the organ symphonic sequence together with a powerful violent guitar riffage strikes. The bass is drums are frantic. Around 3:30" or something, is the first shift. The song calms down to a brilliant chorus, performed with feeling. The song changes again, and the progression keeps goin until the song returns to the furious and symphonic start line. Lenny has more different passages at the end. The solos of this track are really great. My CD copy features a lenghty bonus track (eleven minutes) called Mounting The Eternal Spiral. It would be a good song. It is a great song. But it's the kind of song that needs a better equalization. I am satisfied with this version, but unfortunnately most of the prog fans are too demanding with the recording quality. This is pure underground stuff. When you find a gem in the mine, you are not expecting the same stone you would buy easily in a store.

Yeah, they learned with Genesis. But they were able to write for themselves, and quite well!

Among the most famous Austrian prog bands (along with Eela Craig),Kyrie Eleison came from Wien and started rehearsing in 1974 with Gerald Krampl on keys,Karl Novotny on drums and Felix Rausch on guitars.Along with Michael Schubert on vocals and bassist Norbert Morin they toured in Austria,supporting acts like Van Der Graaf Generator,Colosseum and Amon Duul.The ''Blind Windows Suite'',released in 1994 by Indigo Music,was actually some early raw recordings of the band in a rehearsal level.

The style of the band's early phase was somewhere between Hard Kraut Prog and Symphonic Rock.Containing mainly long tracks,''Blind Windows Suite'' is settled pretty much in an amateur level,both compositionally and productively.Hard rock guitar explosions are accompanied by an angry vocalist and the Classical-trained Gerald Krampl in a mix,which is not really that succesful.The production is really bad,the compositions are split between structured formats and long jamming,the drums sound like beating cooking pots and the singer sounds like the worst version of PETER HAMMILL.Especially the breaks,followed by the meaningless solos,are what spoils more this effort.But not everything is bad of course.The structures ideas of Kyrie Eleison are generally at a good level,smoother parts are supported by heavy keyboard- driven passages, Krampl shines on his organ,harsichord and moog synth and the strong interplays indicate a band capable of more.Unfortunately a bad production and an insufficient singer will hold the material down.

''Blind Windows Suite'' can be appreciated only as an early document of Kyrie Eleison and it is a good release from this point of view.Otherwise the album heads only to collectors of keyboard-dominated Kraut/Symphonic Prog,but be sure to try some samples first.

The Fountain Beyond the Sunrise is probably one of the most under appreciated prog masterpieces out there. From when I first listened to the album two years ago, I've been hooked... I find it difficult to go through a week without listening to it. The main criticism this album receives is its studio recording quality... and I'll admit, it's not perfect, but that's because Kyrie Eleison bought a 9-track recording device only to find it didn't work, and under the pressures of deadlines, they were forced to use the old 2-track device. If anything, knowing the history of the band and the challenges they faced brings about the emotions in the musicians even further. Nevertheless, in that sense, they probably could have recorded it a little better had they the opportunity, but even with that in mind I would still undoubtedly consider this a masterpiece as the recording quality isn't so bad that it takes away from the brilliance of the pieces. It just feels like they are playing live!

Give it a listen. Perhaps even a few listens. Or if you're me, perhaps a few hundred listens because you just can't hold yourself back.

After listening to Kyrie Eleison I find it exceptionally difficult to find other prog that can match its greatness...

Kyrie Eleison is a progressive rock band from Austria formed in 1973 and lasted until 1978 when they disbanded. This 3 CD compilation (limited edition of 1000 copies) gathered all band recordings across the years, 2 studio albums and one live release with unrelease pieces and never featured on theose studio albums. The music is almost Genesis clone, Nursery cryme era, but manage in places to have some good moments. So, I will begin with their first album released in 1974 named The blind windows suite. Well here music is from Deep Purple fame , Wallenstein more on heavy prog side but with some symphonic arrangements, not realy bad overall, but the sound production is a total disaster. The compositions are enough lenghty , some of them almost 16 min, where Kyrie Eleison tries to make some intristing chops, but not very often succeded, anyway some good mellotron are interluded with guitars on some traks. For the first album 2.5 stars. Second release in their live album recorded in 1975, here are some psychedelic atmosphere combined with symphonic prog moments, not bad , but nothing realy something tot talk about, hardly 3 stars . Their third album and second studio album released in 1976 named The fountain beyond the sunrise is by far their best album from all the recordings, much more symphonic , much more mature, the compositions are well crefted, the sound is better, they gone in a good direction by for some resons never made it . This album very in Genesis style, features some good keybords arrangements, but the low point is the voice. So, overall I will give 3 stars , this compilation shows what this band offers in mid to late '70's, not a very strong band , but has some good compostions thst for sure. The cover art shown here is aswell from their second release The fountain beyond the sunrise, excellent btw, one of the best I've seen from prog zone, is a pitty that the music is not on same level. 3 stars.

I like this band. A great performance in 70 years. If it's a Genesis clone in some parts is very spaced and psiquedelic in others. In 70 years the sound of some records are not so good but the musicians quality made the quality of music. The inspiration to made some original musics is a vision of the quality of this band. It's a obscure band very hard to find the first recordings but if you listen carefully you like this work. It's a band for entusiastic of 70 décade sound. The keyboards made a space atmosphere in some parts. Lirics are nothing special but some music parts are very good and this band have some nice musicians. If you like Genesis and 70 years sound please listen this work.

.

I happened to like their second album. That album was a big step in the right direction from the debut album I am now reviewing here.

This is their debut album and a pretty unimpressive one too. The music is a mix of space rock, krautrock and symphonic prog. The latter one is not particular visible here. I think Krautrock is the most fitting description. The references to Eloy is pretty evident. So is some references to Pink Floyd and Yes too. But the weak songs and sound here is pretty much disguising these references. Not to mention the most horrid vocals I have heard for a long time. The main instruments is keyboards and guitars. Mostly keyboards. The music is a mix of pastorial and in particular; hard rock. There are some ELP nodding on this album too. Mostly at the end of it. But most of this album have some strong references to Eloy and the Krautrock scene. The quality is bad and I am not surprised this band, or their record label, gave up after the second album. There are many, many better bands and albums out there. This one just does not make it for me.

2 stars