In The World Of Fantasy? ...and Other Rarities is not a regular CD from the Polish neo-progressive rock band Millenium. It's a collection of promo tracks: 2 unrealised tracks from EGO (2013, see review) and In Search Of The Perfect Body (2014), maxi-singles, radio-edits and alternative versions. The first song, one of the longest ones with more than 12 minutes playtime, is also the title track of their twelfth CD. It starts with strange noises and a kind of pipe organ sound, acoustic guitars and the typical vocal duels between Lukasz Gall and Sabina Godula. In the middle part are several interesting keyboards solos from Ryszard Kramarski, and at a certain point here are only voices and a kind of choir singing about “The king of desire - and the love for his queen”. It's easy to hear that all five members of Millenium are greatly influenced by Pink Floyd and Eloy. The end is more up-tempo, with a kind of 'Dire Straits guitar duel'. It's very audible that The Song Of Hope And Love is an acoustic romantic ballad, beautifully sung by Lukasz; lyrically it fits nicely with the previous song. A long IQ/ Pendragon intro announces the Puzzles Suite. Nice drumming from Tomasz Pasko and the typical neo-prog guitar and synthesizer are featured in this 14 minutes long instrumental song. Perfect to dream away to, out of this unpredictable and nasty world with war and terror. It's Pink Floyd time again in Reincarnation. Almost the same intro as in their song A Great Day For Freedom from The Division Bell album released in 1994. It's followed by a five minutes long, heavenly played guitar solo. All in the vein of David Gilmour and a characteristic synth solo from Richard Wright who unfortunately deceased too early. Slightly easier to listen to, but certainly not bad, are the two following songs Up & Downs and Chaos. Especially the piano-parts and bass playing by Krysztof Wyrwa deserve a compliment. The next two songs aren't high flyers, but in both songs the guitar solos were pleasing to my ears. Born In 67 is a simple song: acoustic guitar, synthesizer waves and easy lyrics to complete it.'The rockers of Queen are back was my first thought when I heard the party song The Prose Of Life. The instrumental song, Oceans Of Memory starts like a Gandalf song with sea wave sounds and acoustic guitar. A sharp electric guitar solo shook me to attention. The song is built up to a symphonic climax, ending with a sax solo from Aretha Chimiel. The final song, just over one and a half minutes, is the symphonic and choral version of Dreaming, which was taken from a session for In Search Of The Perfect Melody; their most recent CD, released in 2014 . This collection of 12 songs gives a good impression of the skills of this excellent neo-prog band from Poland. Please don't let us wait too long for their next release. **** Cor Smeets (edited by Esther Ladiges) Where to buy? |
