Corvus Stone -
Corvus Stone II


(CD 2014,79:12, Melodic Revolution Records MR CD 22107)

The tracks:
  1- The Simple Life(1:59)
  2- Early Morning Call(3:51)
  3- Boots For Hire(8:58)
  4- Sneaky Entrance In To Lisa(0:30)
  5- Purple Stone(3:21)
  6- A Stoned Crow Meets The Rusty Wolff Rat(7:37)
  7- Lisa Has A Cigar(0:46)
  8- Mr Cha Cha(4:49)
  9- Dark Tower(1:48)
10- Scandinavians In Mexico(5:06)
11- Mystery Man(6:37)
12- Camelus Bactrianus (Tuolla Tuonnempana)(8:42)
13- Uncle Schunkle(4:37)
14- Eternal Universe(3:52)
15- Moaning Lisa(14:07)
16- Campfire (Tulen Luona)(2:17)

Website      facebook      Melodic Revolution Records
X


The multinational project Corvus Stone consists of Pasi Koivu (keyboards), Colin Tench (guitars), Petri Lemmi Lindstrom (bass guitars), Robert Wolff (drums and percussion). Special guests on their second album are, amongst others, Phil Naro (Drackfarben, Talas), Sean Filkins (ex-Big Big Train), German Vergara (Aisles), Blake Carpenter (The Minstrel's Ghost, Voice Of The Enslaved) and Victor Tassone (Unified Past). After listening to this very long album of almost 80 minutes several times it is not an easy task to describe the music of Corvus Stone. But the music kept my attention all the time. Nevertheless I decided to write just a few characteristics of each song.

The Simple Life starts with some heavy riffs, soon changing into a nice Moody Blues-song, sung by Phil Naro. It's time for some blues on Early Morning Call. Lazy music with a Doors- organ which rules the pace.
Boots For Hire: blues with lots of elements taken out of seventies rock music. It has an almost instrumental ending like a stampede of wild horses on the US prairie. Vocals are by Stef Flaming (Murky Red) on this one.
Sneaky Entrance In To Lisa: only 20 seconds of acoustic guitar music.
Purple Stone: typical rock of the seventies sung by Blake Carpenter and Andres Guazelli.
A Stoned Crow Meets The Rusty Wolff Ra: a weird avant-garde pinball machine song (Jethro Tull versus Uriah Heep).
Lisa Has A Cigar: again 15 seconds of instrumental music.
Mr. Cha Cha: instrumental power rock in the vein of Deep Purple. A.k.a. Ritchie Blackmore and John Lord are back again.
Dark Tower: Classic piano, excellent bass playing, spoken lyrics and a Camel kind of guitar sound.
Scandinavians In Mexico: Santana rhythms with rolling drums and Hammond organ sounds.
Mystery Man: a short mysterious guitar echo, sung by Blake Carpenter  with a heavy ending.
Camelus Bactrianus (Tuolla tuennempana): spooky music, lyrics (Finnish?) by Matti Kervinen and sung by Tim Rautainen. And a melting pot of the guitar waves reminding me of Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and David Gilmour (Pink Floyd).
Unkle Schunkle: Jazz rock in the vein of Brand X with Al Di Meola kind of guitar licks.
Eternal Universe: a romantic love song about heaven, beautifully sung by Phil Naro.
Moaning Lisa: highlight of the album sung by Sean Filkins. Romance and dramatic rock music, Spanish guitars, symphonic interludes by a classic orchestra, 13 minutes of high class prog music.
Campfire (Tulen Luona): a kind of dessert that can be appointed as a Finish campfire song.

If you are looking for a very varied progressive rock album and you like the above mentioned bands, than Corvus Stone no. 2 is an excellent choice. And maybe you should try their eponymous album (2012, see review) as well.

***** Cor Smeets (edited by Astrid de Ronde)

Where to buy?




All Rights Reserved Background Magazine 2015