POMPEII

"Pompeii" is the fifth studio album of Triumvirat and that was released in 1977. The band released the album under the name of The New Triumvirat, due to temporary legal squabbles over the original name of the band by former members.

"Pompeii" is a conceptual album of Triumvirat about the devastating earthquake from 62 A.D. It represents the end of an era for this great German progressive rock band. Their subsequent two studio albums, "À La Carte", released in 1978 and "Russian Roulette", released in 1980, took a complete commercial pop flavor, and left most of the bombastic symphonic rock that they were famous for in the dust. So, this is the last Triumvirat's album with progressive lines.

The line up on "Pompeii" is Barry Palmer (lead and background vocals), Jürgen Fritz (Hammond C3 organ, Moog synthesizers, ARP string ensemble, Steinway grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Yamaha polyphonic synthesizer CS-80 and GX-1, Hohner clavinet, bells and tympani), Dieter Petereit (Fender, Rickenbacker and Yamaha basses) and Curt Cress (Gretch and Fiber drums, roto toms, timbales, Paiste cymbals and gongs, handclaps and moog- synthesized percussion).

So, again the line up on a Triumvirat's album changed one more time. However, this time the changes were much deeper. Of the line up of their previous album, "Old Loves Die Hard", only remained Barry Palmer and Jürgen Fritz. Still, the main change of all was the departure of their drummer, Hans Bathelt. We can't forget that Hans Bathelt was with Jürgen Fritz one of the founding members of the band. But above all, Hans Bathelt was the "right arm" of Jürgen Fritz.

"Pompeii" has eight tracks. The first track "The Earthquake 62 A.D." written by Jürgen Fritz is a very good song, very progressive, and in the same line of the usual Triumvirat's music. This is a very good song to open the album, very promising for what would appear on the album. It's a song with great musical changes, very strong and with plenty of keyboard solos. This is a great track. The second track "Journey Of A Fallen Angel" written by Jürgen Fritz, proves unfortunately that what was promised will not be fulfilled. This is a very pop and commercial song that hasn't anything to do with the concept and the previous music. It reminds me, in some moments, Procol Harum's music and the only thing I can say is that I'm very disappointed because this isn't the music of our beloved prog band. The third track "Viva Pompeii" written by Jürgen Fritz and Curt Cress is, fortunately, another very good song where they return to their style of music with some jazzy influences. It's an excellent instrumental piece of music with rich textures, very well arranged and with fantastic keyboard works by Jürgen Fritz. The fourth track "The Time Of Your Life" written by Sondra and Jürgen Fritz isn't a bad song. It's very well arranged and orchestrated and has a good vocal performance. However, I'm a bit disappointed with it because, like the second song, it has nothing to do with the musical concept of the album. The fifth track "The Rich Man And The Carpenter" written by Jürgen Fritz is a song that leaves me confused and divides my personal feelings. It has some great musical parts, the instrumental parts and the parts with calm and soft vocals, but I don't like particularly of some other vocal parts of Barry Palmer. Imagine that I even get to miss the presence of their previous vocalists with their German accent. The sixth track "Dance On The Volcano" written by Jürgen Fritz is a song which fortunately remains with the good things and the great sound of this great German band. This is really a very good instrumental song, very melodic and with great quality, in the Emerson, Lake & Palmer's style. This is one of my favourite songs on this album. The seventh track "Vesuvius 79 A.D." written by Jürgen Fritz is another song with great progressiveness and with some of the best and most complex musical sections on this album. It has great keyboard sounds that are very well combined with the rhythm section. However and unfortunately, it has the same vocal problems on some parts that I disliked on the previous song "The Rich Man And The Carpenter". The eighth and last track "The Hymn" written by Jürgen Fritz is a song which was also released as a single. This is a nice, soft and mellow ballad, clearly the most commercial song on the album. I recognise this is a good song but it has nothing to do with the traditional sound of the group. In relation to Triumvirat's music, I think this is a song too much mellow for my taste.

Conclusion: In the first place, I must say that I was a bit disappointed when I heard this album for the first time. Then, I said to myself that the progressive rock music lost again through the lure of the commercial success. I also thought that, unfortunately and once more, the world was losing another great progressive rock band. "Pompeii" is, in my opinion, a transitional album in the musical career of a band that oscillates between the progressive rock music and the pop music. And like any transition album it can't be a great album because it doesn't defines clearly its type of music. So, despite some very good tracks, this is, without any doubt, the weakest musical effort of the band, till that moment. However, it seems that it was only the beginning. Unfortunately, many other things, much worse, were on their way.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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