CANTUS FIRMUS

Advent, this eclectic prog band from USA, deliver with their second album a pleasent , adventurous music but yet quite melacholic and with two much mellow parts. Cantus firmus is the nam of the release from 2006 and is for me as for many listners a mixed bag of good and inventive arrangements with almost boring parts. Considered the Gentle Giant of moder prog, Advent , never hide their influences and is showed big time here how Gentle Giant they sound from the first note to the last. While I do like this album, pieces like Awaiting the Call... and the longest and most intresting tune of the album an almost epic sided pieces Ramblin' Sailor clocking around 19 min, definetly needs attention, but the rest is quite ordinary yet not bad. I'm bothered by the two much mellow parts, to much vocal oriented passages. Well, what to say, some fans think that this is a very solid album, some that is almost mediocre, I'm in the middle, is ok most of the time with beautiful complicated parts but is far from a masterpiece or something alike. Aformentioned pieces are the best and the most complicated Advent ever done, from symphonic parts to more eclectic ones they did in the end a fairly decent album. 3 stars, very good cover art, shows perfectly what is inside the album, medieval prog rock.