|
THE ARCHIVES
|
Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
|
|
|
|
|
THE AURORA PROJECT
|
Unspoken Words
2005
DVS Records
http://www.theauroraproject.com
|
1. Unspoken Words I
2. The Betrayal
SD:9796.823
4. Unspoken Words II
5. The Untold Prophecy
6. The Event Horizon
7. System Log (9608,10987)
8. The Gathering
SD: 9843.123
10. Unspoken Words III
SD: 9862.000
12. Nocturnal Lament
SD: 9890.114
14. The Resurrection
15. (background song in the multi-media part)
|
The Aurora Project hail from Katwijk, the Netherlands and they have often been named as one of the biggest surprises at the latest edition of ProgPower. And I have to agree, their show was very convincing, the symphonic progrock with dreamy Pink Floyd/Tool/Porcupine Tree type of atmospheres and some heavier parts and passionate climaxes went down very well with the audience. So the expectations for this debut (concept)album were high, and more importantly, they are being met! The album was written around the theme "I feel, so I exist" and based on an essay by guitarist Marc Vooys. The music has an overall SF feel because of the narrated parts and the atmospheres that are being "painted" by the keyboards. You can learn in detail about the concept in the multi-media section of the CD (it's about emotions and our subconsciousness, natural science, the quantum theory, etc.. you know, the usual;))). All bandmembers are excellent musicians and singer Dennis Binnekade has a warm voice with plenty emotion. There are some guests too, a choir in "The Resurrection" and flute player Maria Haasnoot in "Unspoken Words III" and "Nocturnal Lament", who also joined them on stage at ProgPower.
The CD starts with "Unspoken Words I", a very nice atmospheric song, which is sort of the intro to "The Betrayal", my favorite. It slowly builds up to a fantastic song, passionate and stimulating. Track 3 "SD9796.823" tells a bit of the story in spoken words (by Gerrit Versteegh) throughout the whole song (with only a basic, atmospheric keyboard melody underneath), which is too long IMO (same goes for track 7, the others are short and therefore fit well between the songs). After all, the listener is expecting a music CD, not a soundtrack and these narrated tracks break the wonderful mood of the CD a bit (but of course, if you wish, you can program the CD to skip these in your player). The rest of the songs are beautiful though, fairly introvert with some heavier outbursts and passionate climaxes. Track 15 is not listed, but it's a very soothing song that you also get to hear in the background when viewing the multi-media section on the CD.
All in all a very talented band with a very prestigeous debut that should be checked out by anyone who even remotely enjoys symphonic and atmospheric (prog)rock!
submitted by Marlies 18.01.2006
|
|
|
|
rating 1 - 5 Morrigans
5 = awesome, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = keep practising, 1 = sell your gear!
|
|
|
|
|
