IN THE REALM OF ASGÆRD

A sound very reminiscent of the Wooden Nickel era Styx, Asgærd combine Dennis deYoung-like vocals with Uriah Heepish guitars and the overall pastiche of bands like Rhapsody, only at the height of the progressive (aka art) rock era. In other words, they were dead-on for their time. The sound doesn’t wear all that well with time, but some accommodation must be made since this album was released in the very early seventies.

This is one of those bands that’s impossible to find on the original vinyl, but Progressive Line reissued it as a pretty decent quality CD. From what I’ve read the original vinyl gatefold was pretty ostentatious – I’d like to get a look at that someday.

Nothing special here though, mostly just fairly mainstream guitar and rhythm section and lyrics that range from fantasy to pseudo- folk to heavy-rock. The violinist is a very nice touch though, and at a time when that instrument was not nearly as prevalent in prog music as it is today.

When hearing the opening title track I can’t help but picture Spinal Tap’s ‘Stonehenge’ scene: wildly pretentious, way too serious, and grandiosely Tolkeinesque. Great stuff!

The rest of the album doesn’t quite rise to that level though. A couple tracks like “Austin Osmanspare”, “Lorraine” and “Children of a New Born Age” have some very good vocal harmonies ala CSNY, and “Starquest” features decent fuzz guitar and a decidedly Moody Blues vocal influence. Not surprising since this was originally released on Threshold.

The rest of the album is pretty much generic anonymous art rock from the age of art rock. Not bad, but not really memorable either. Pretty much the definition of a three star album in my opinion. So let’s give it that and move on to something new.

peace