MANDALABAND IV - AD: SANGREAL

This is the fourth album released under the name of Mandalaband, the first two coming in the 70's (Mandalaband I in 1975 and Mandalaband II in 1978). It then took more than 30 years for Mandalaband III to see the light of day in 2009, and now in 2011 they present us with Mandalaband IV - AD: Sangreal. Like all the previous Mandalaband releases, this one too is a concept album. Musically, it is most similar to Mandalaband III in its pleasant mixture of World Music, New Age, Soft Rock, Symphonic bombast and some more modern sounds. Fans of Mike Oldfield, Barclay James Harvest, The Moody Blues and perhaps Vangelis will probably like this, but this new album is less good than all the previous ones.

Like on previous albums, there is a plethora of instruments played by a number of guests including Woolly Wolstenholme who took his own life shortly after this album was created. In tribute to Woolly, a new version of Barclay James Harvest's Galadriel is attached as a bonus track.

As I have pointed out in previous reviews, Mandalaband is not so much a band as a "project", similar to the Alan Parsons Project. The Alan Parsons of Mandalaband is David Rohl who is the main composer, orchestrator, producer and engineer. He also sings and plays various instruments. And he is also a professor of archaeology!

I recommend investigating the albums of Mandalaband in chronological order, this one is their least interesting so far. It is not bad as such, but it adds little to what they already gave us on the previous album.

Recommended only to fans (if there are any such?!)

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