Search - Aunt Mary :: Aunt Mary / Janus

Top 5 from Norway!

Cervello | 09/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Its pretty incredible to imagine that this album came only a year after their previous album "Loaded". Mainly because this album is one of the true masterpieces of scandinavian progressive rock and this indeed is a fully progressive affair. The musical idea here was to make the tracks glide in to one another and form mini-suites. "Path of your dream" kicks off and reminds of the furious riffs from Yes' "Heart of the sunrise" and that should say something of the high caliber displayed here. This formidable track segues into "Mr. Kaye", a more relaxed song that could have been written bye the Kinks. Then comes "Nocturnal voice" with its tough driving rhytms and great themes. Other than that, another highlight is "Stumblin' stone", a hard rocking affair that reminds of the previous heavy rock album by the band. "All we've got to do is dream" is a nice slower song with good vocal harmonies. The last track is "What a lovely day", another slower song, with a moody ground theme. This album is superb with its blend of musical styles and strong songwriting, mixing symphonic rock, heavy progressive and ballads. This and JUNIPHER GREENES album must be counted as important milestones, not only in norwegian musichistory but european also."

Strong thematic effort with nice "gearshifts" along the way.

collegemoney | 10/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't improve on the fine review below, in terms of knowledge of this group, I will only add that this is fabulous progressive music. The emphasis is directed more to the instrumentals than the vocals. The music, though thematic (I couldn't really tell when it moved from "Aunt Mary" to "Janus") shifts gears often and never bores or tires, unlike some prog band efforts of the era. The choral passages may remind a bit of Queen's "Bohemiam Rhapsody" but do not let me scare you off with that, if that sounds intimidating. Nowhere near as bombastic but some common thread. Very nice."