SAD CYPRESS

I really don't understand why this band is in the Psychedelic/ Space Rock sub-genre when this sounds as GENESIS as GENESIS does. This is a Symphonic album all the way. "Sad Cypress" was released in 1980 by this German band and the vocals are in English. The vocals are the weakest link in my opinion but man for me being a massive GENESIS fan it's hard not to appreciate the very GENESIS-like instrumental sounds, in fact that's all that's keeping this at 3 stars for me.

I'm going to be fairly brief here. The album opens with "At This Very Moment" which in my opinion is a bad way to start only because the vocals seem to be the weakest here and the lyrics don't help much. A beat and synths lead early on as he sings over top. When he stops singing we get keys then a relaxed guitar solo. Themes are repeated. "In Hora Ultima" has a guest singer briefly singing in Latin. Church bells to start before a full sound with vocals arrives just before a minute. Man this sounds familiar. Tribal-like drumming follows. This is so GENESIS-like before 4 1/2 minutes. The vocals come and go.

"Sad Cypress" sounds so much like GENESIS I can't believe it. A change 2 1/2 minutes in as we get high pitched synths. A complete change follows as it turns uptempo with vocals and it's still very GENESIS-like. I do like the melancholic instrumental ending. "Time Traveller" is an instrumental with plenty of time shifts. It's okay. "My Brother" is the almost 14 minute closer. Keys and atmosphere to start as reserved vocals and more join in. This is all very relaxed and he actually sounds like Gabriel here for the first time. It does pick up before a minute but I'm not a fan of this or the vocals that follow. Lots to describe on this track but I'm done.

I have lots of GENESIS inspired albums that range from great to poor. This is closer to the latter except I do really like most of the instrumental sections on here. So 3 stars it is.

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