Interdead (2005) is the fifth official studio album by the Polish neo-proggers of Millenium. The album has been reissued in 2014. At the time the band consisted of Łukasz Gall (vocals), Piotr Plonka (guitars), Krzysztof Wyrwa (bass, Chapman stick), Tomasz Pasko, (drums, percussion) and band leader Ryszard Kramarski (keyboards, loops). On Interdead two guest musicians can be heard: Sabina Godula (narration, backing vocals) and Aretha Chmiel (saxophone). The album starts quite remarkably with Insomnia: two minutes of spoken words, a fierce saxophone solo and heavy drumming. The Gambler is a more pop-like song that sounds like a tribute to Pink Floyd after the departure of Roger Waters. It has a nice guitar solo at the end, but I think the way of drumming is slightly too simple. Veedeeo tells the story of the influences the daily use of computers have on people. Again the lyrics are quite easy to understand; I would call it easy listening prog. Light is the first ballad; it's not very original but well-played by the band. It reminded me of the well-known ballads Phil Collins sang during his Genesis period. The powerful end is quite surprising, but I won't reveal why. Lady is an ambitious and engrossing song. From the first notes until the last it rocks like Pink Floyd's David Gilmour in his best years. Another well-considered track is the semi-ballad Demon. The duels between singers Łukasz Gall and Sabina Gudula are of a high quality level; it's impossible to count the numerous nice guitar licks in this song. The hymn Canto sounds very romantic; it's another ballad resembling the music of Eric Clapton and Dire Straits topped with touches of Genesis. In Madman the only difference compared to the previous songs is the saxophone solo by Aretha Chmiel. The final piece Burning is divided into two parts. The first one is a long guitar solo by Piotr Plonka in the vein of Andy Latimer (Camel) and supported by the other band members. The second one, the epilogue, consists of some spoken words. I would say Interdead is a Millenium album that scores above average. ***+ Cor Smeets (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
