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Goad: In the House of the Dark Shining Dreams

Black Widow Records has always been the place to go if you like 70's inspired dark prog or heavy rock. The latest from veteran band Goad, a longtime underground prog act who have been around for many years, is called In the House of the Dark Shining Dreams. Hints of early King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Genesis seep through each and every note on this CD (there's even a cover of Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" and VDGG's "Killer"), led by the unique vocal style of Maurilio Rossi, who also plays a little bass, guitar, and keyboards (Moog, Mellotron, organ). The band throws in some violin, flute, sax, recorder, acoustic & electric guitar, and drums into the mix, giving the music a somewhat symphonic & jazzy prog sound, always dark and ominous however.

Overall, there's a lot of music to take in here, as most of the songs are lengthy, and the addition of the two cover songs pushes the CD to the 80 minute max. Highlights include the dramatic "Yet Another Battlefield", the creepy and doomy "Dark Virgin", and the dark, metallic "It's Always The Same Thing", which features some intense guitar work that almost approaches metal at times, as well as Rossi's bizarre vocal delivery. The dreamy "Springy" is one of the more lush and pastoral tracks on the CD, with calming vocals, swirling keyboards, and yearning guitar chords that remind of Steve Hackett.

The music of Italy's Goad is not going to be for everyone, but if you like very dark prog, and are willing to invest close to 80 minutes of your time, this release could be for you. Next time out, they might want to work on the production a bit, as it's really muddy in spots, but the band obviously has a lot of talent and sound pretty different from the norm, so this should be something to seek out if you like obscure underground prog.


Track Listing

  1. Intro
  2. Yet Another Battlefield
  3. Clapper's Beatin' Fast
  4. Dark Virgin
  5. Olympia
  6. Killer
  7. As Nothing Had Changed
  8. Dark Virgin 2
  9. Steep Path
  10. It's Always The Same Thing
  11. Springy
  12. 21st Century Schizoid Man
  13. Genius Of Europe

Added: September 8th 2007
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Black Widow
Hits: 2943
Language: english

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» SoT Staff Roundtable Reviews:

Goad: In the House of the Dark Shining Dreams
Posted by Jedd Beaudoin, SoT Staff Writer on 2007-09-08 07:47:47
My Score:

For about 10 seconds, "Yet Another Battlefield" seems like a promising enough song––vocalist Maurilio Rosi sounds like Jon Anderson with laryngitis, the keyboardist burp and bop with classic progisms but it quickly falls apart from there. The music's undynamic, uninteresting, amateurish and wading through the whole 77 minute album is a bit like searching for one raindrop in the Pacific Ocean.

There's not much identity here––"Clapper's Beatin' Fast" could easily be a pointless Architecture in Helsinki jam, "Killer" could be an outtake from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the cover of you-know-what from Krimson is about as painful and pointless as they come. If you value your time, money and energy, you'll sail right past this bad boy.



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