Tuesday 6 March 2018

Pictorial Wand - A Sleeper's Awakening (2006)


The debut album from this Norwegian project.

Pictorial Wand is Mattis Sorum's project. He does the guitars, sitar, keyboards and organs.
The rest of the project, eight other musicians, contributes with drums, bass, harpsichord, cello, flute, synths, piano, organ and vocals.

Mattis Sorum is a graduate from the Berkeley guitar school and he has also a master degree in music from a Norwegian university. And he was also young and brave when undertaking this project.

Hence a two hours long double CD symphonic prog album.

Yes, the world is full of brave, young people doing big things. Sometimes, that ends up as a folly. Or most of the times, my middle-aged generation will rightfully say.

Two hours is...... well, a long time. To keep up the concentration as a listener can be hard. In particular when this album is about deadly sins from the Bible. That without being a Christian rock album. Far from it. 

The music is meandering away with a lot of good themes and melodies. There is a lot of guitars here but they are rarely dipping into prog metal and shredding territory. Thankfully ! The other instruments and the vocals is also making this album into an album with a big sound. There is also a lot of very good details here.

I am managing to follow the themes and is tuned into this album. A good album who should be of interest to those into symphonic prog and Scandinavian prog.

3 points

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