Abarax - Blue Room

(CD 2009; 58:33; Cyclops Records CYCL 174)

The tracks:
  1- Cry Out For Me(2:24)
  2- Autumn Storm(7:18)
  3- Sermons And Lies(9:24)
  4- Life(8:04)
  5- As We Spoke(8:39)
  6- Arena(5:19)
  7- Red Roses And Bullets(6:07)
  8- Howard's End(10:55)

Abarax Website        samples        Cyclops Records


It has taken German band Abarax four years to come up with a successor for the magnificent debut album Crying Of The Whales. But finally Blue Room has arrived … and I have mixed feelings about it. The nice thing about Abarax was that the band was specifically started to fill the void of Pink Floyd never releasing new music anymore. Not surprisingly, the music on Crying Of The Whales was heavily and heavenly influenced by the melodic prog strings that the mighty Floyd used to weave. Blue Room in contrast has a song which reminds me way too much of Scorpions’ Wind Of Change: bombastic singing with big refrains, keyboards and a guitar which too obviously wants to show: “I’m here and I’m mighty.” And the song is titled Autumn Song, this cannot be a coincidence! This song might not be exemplary for the rest of the music on Blue Room but it is none the less indicative: songs which are sung with a raw rock-like voice and bombastic compositions that are not interesting enough for their length. Low point is the shamefully commercial ballad Red Roses & Bullets which seems to be meant to catapult Abarax into the MTV Top 10. Rather disappointing.

**- André de Waal (edited by Robert James Pashman)

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