POMPEII

Up to this point, Triumvirat was doing pretty good holding their own as what could be a respectable symphonic progressive band. Yes, they sounded very much like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but their talent made them sound very authentic while doing it. Granted, Fritz was an amazing keyboardist and was the closest thing out there to Keith Emerson. Unfortunately, by 1976, the line up was quickly changing, and when 1977 came around, the only original member left was Fritz. After losing their original lead singer to a disastrous solo career and his untimely death, Barry Palmer did the lead vocals on the previous album and would also remain with Fritz for what was to be called The New Triumvirat.

Both respected musicians Dieter Petereit (bass) and Curt Cress (drums) would join into the lineup for the album "Pompeii". On the surface, this looked like an ambitious project, which I suppose it was. But would this new version of the band be able to tackle a project like this? Fritz definitely had his sights quite high for this one, and sure enough, this album is a concept piece. But, record company pressures were wearing on Fritz and he was giving in to them in order to keep his band going. He was holding on to whatever he could, and he did at least do a decent job of it for this album. But the pressures were increasing and that also is apparent here.

What could have been an excellent album that would have matched up to "Sparticus" turned out to sound more uneven instead. Now, ELP fans that look to Triumvirat for that signature sound will still find it on "Pompeii", but will also find the band wavering, not quite as much as ELP did on "Love Beach", but close. "Pompeii" fortunately, is still salvageable to some extent. But the 8 track album doesn't really do justice to the subject matter, and most of that is because about half of the material is too commercial or not convincing enough.

Opening with "The Earthquake 62 A.D.", we get the sounds of the sea and gulls, light synth starts to build with bass and drums coming in with the organ later taking charge, and you get an authentic sounding ELP fanfare to open things up and to give an impressive extended opening. Things quiet down as spoken word accompanied by a choral group and orchestra with the fanfare returning later. There are symphonic traits throughout, so all is not lost. "Journey of a Fallen Angel" show the bands reliance on lyrics more than before, but the song structures are not quite completely sold out to the usual patterns of pop music. The piano is the lead instrument here and through a lot of the tracks on the album even in the heavier parts of the songs. "Viva Pompeii" is the first of two fairly short instrumentals, and it features ever changing keyboard textures and complex percussion. Cress is definitely a talented drummer and is one of the best things about the album making it even more convincingly ELP-like. The last track on the first side is "The Time of Your Life" and this features guest Sondra singing on the chorus of the song. The song reminds me a bit of the style that the band Kayak was using at the time, sort of a ragtime-y feel, probably too cheerful sounding for the material, but driven with a catchy beat. Vocal effects give the last part of the track a chaotic feel.

Lyrical heaviness continues with "The Rich Man and the Carpenter". Unfortunately, Barry Palmer's vocals are a bit weak and have a hard time carrying this style of music the way that Greg Lake's vocals could. There is a softer, slower middle section here which contains a choral section, but the song ends returning to a quicker tempo with heavy orchestration and piano once again leading the way. The 2nd instrumental follows, the too short "Dance on the Volcano" which starts out a lot like "Abaddon's Bolero" (from ELP's "Trilogy" album) with a much shorter build up before getting more complex as synth and organ trade places with great drum support. The excellent drum work continues with "Vesuvious 79 A.D.", a track that is noticeably darker in tone. This is a showcase for the drums for the first part of the song until the organ and orchestra cut in. This one also has the most dramatic vocals and the most exciting instrumental sections of all of the tracks on the album. The longest track on the album, "The Hymn" ends the album beginning as the first song, with the sound of waves and then a piano plays a soft, hymn-like passage. The intensity builds as the orchestra, chorus and piano come together in a track that is way too sentimental sounding, giving it a rather schmaltzy ending.

In the end, the band hasn't quite got to the point of being written off completely, but it was showing some growing pains as the members try to deal with a line up that was changing and record label pressures. There was room here for the band to grow back to the status of previous years, though, but instead, they would give in completely to the pressure of record management and the following albums would be too embarrassing to be remembered, even ending up worse off than anything ELP put out after they also succumbed to record company profits. This is the last album by Triumverat that is worth spending any time on, and even then, the failing band is apparent on "Pompeii" and will only get much worse.