The Norwegian progressive rock band D’AccorD was formed early 2008 by Daniel Mage (vocals, flute), Stig Are Sund (guitars), Martin Sjoen (bass) and Bjarte Rossehaug (drums). Their eponymous debut album was released in 2009. The music of D’AccorD has been strongly influenced by British seventies progressive rock bands as Genesis, Jethro Tull, ELP, Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Queen, Gentle Giant and Dutch band Focus. In my opinion, these bands appear on the list of favourites of the band members. Listening to the five songs on their debut album is a real pleasure provided that you like the aforementioned bands. All compositions show lots of variety from soft melodic rock to nice classic hard rock and everything in between. All band members are good musicians, but in particular singer Daniel Mage deserves an honourable mention. His vocals are excellent, they range somewhere between Peter Gabriel and Ian Gillan, the famous lead singer of Deep Purple. The opening song Play By The Hall Rules is the first highlight of this CD. It’s a 12-minute long epic that can be divided in two sections. The first section is dominated by Hammond-organ and Moog combined with the typical Uriah Heep guitar sound. The second section resembles Genesis during the Nursery Crime / Foxtrot-era. I love the way the passionate vocals of Daniel Mage take me into this piece. This Is The One is a much simpler rock song, a kind of mixture of Deep Purple and Jethro Tull. I like the ending with the flute escapades. Next song Bin is also typical seventies rock. In the folky middle-section you can again enjoy some flute solos. The ending of this track is more experimental, in the vein of Van Der Graaf Generator. The second highlight is Time To Play with a Queen-like intro: a piano, clear vocals, melodic guitars and close harmony singing. This track also contains a saxophone solo played by guest musician Fredrik Horn, followed by a solo on Hammond-organ. The ‘Floydish’ guitar solo is supported by the ‘Queenesque’ vocals of Daniel Mage and the guest singers Igvild and Marit. The ending of Time To Play is very special, but I won’t give away any clues! Capitale Venditio is a 15-minute epic, a real jewel and without doubt the best piece of the album. It starts slowly and a bit dramatic, but exactly after four minutes the song changes into an eruption of quite heavy sounds. Soon after that you can enjoy fine flute play in the vein of early Camel, but accompanied with heavy organ sounds. Again I’m amazed of Mage’s vocal abilities. The last four minutes are set apart for the piano and a bluesy Floydish guitar solo. I enjoyed this debut album by D’AccorD very much. I think this is a very promising band for the near future. They play progressive rock music just the way I like it. Well done! **** Cor Smeets (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
