Flaming Bess, a German prog rock band, hailing from Dusseldorf originally, was founded when I was 11 years old (1969)...and now more than fifty years later Flaming Bess is back with a new album called Wrinkle Of Time. The twelve songs are a blend of melodic rock and symphonic prog rock featuring lots of interesting and soaring guitar and keyboards solos; I would almost call it romantic music... The more than excellent opening track Shadows Of Dawn is a mix of blues rock and art rock in the true sense of the word, as the guitars of Hans Wende and Achim Wierschem really set the tone in that particular song; so, a wonderful way to start an album indeed. The two instrumental tracks on the album, being On The Edge and Time Flies, certainly belong to the highlights of this album as they are genuinely great compositions, showing/proving that these guys can handle their instruments quite well. Dreamfall is a ballad, rather melancholic and the lead vocals here are from Aurora Ferrer, while the other pop related ballad Now I Regret is vocally performed by Kevin Symonds. In the title track, an epic song of 14 minutes, the band's history is told in a metaphorical way, but Flaming Bess saves the best for last as Universal Mind, clocking in at almost 11 minutes, is the pinnacle of this album, sung by Mike Hartmann, this track is all that Flaming Bess stands for: melodic progressive rock with plenty of musical depths and lots of surprising twists and turns. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
