Sometimes you get a notification of a certain album released by a certain band. Mostly the band name doesn't ring a bell. This happened to me when I got a press release from In The Mist Of Morning made by the Norwegian band Nordagust. Since my hunger for new music and new bands is always present, I gave the music a try. I checked out some of the sound samples on their MySpace-page which is the easiest way to discover a band. Wow! The music I heard had definitely something to tell and I decided that I would like to hear more of Nordagust! A promo was being arranged and as soon as I received the copy of Nordagust's debut album I put it in my CD-player and...the music hit me right in the face. This album appeared to be a real killer album which kept spinning in my CD-player and in the back of my head for days! I just couldn't escape from this beautiful progressive rock music. I was addicted to In The Mist Of Morning playing it almost compulsively several times a day. The great Mellotron-parts and the fine melodic guitar sound produced by these Norwegian musicians were just breathtaking. Also the very emotionally sung male lead vocals fit in with the music perfectly. The heavy guitar interludes on some of the tracks are a welcome change in the high level of the compositions. The music from Nordagust is mostly inspired by Norway's beautiful nature. Especially the instrumental track In The Woods contains wonderful playing on the acoustic guitars accompanied by an impressive Mellotron-sound. The music on In The Mist Of Morning - lasting nearly one hour - certainly has some links with other Scandinavian progressive rock bands like Landberk, Anekdoten and Änglagård. However, I realize that the music of Nordagust has a bigger impact on me than these bands. Despite the quality of the album, I still got a remark to make. Maybe the production could have been better if more money and time had been available. However, this release is a demo originally recorded in 2007. It was remixed and remastered later on for this second 2010-release, but this doesn't prevent me from giving this album the well-deserved highest rating of five stars! All songs are simply perfect and thus this rating is the only way to express my positive feelings towards In The Mist Of Morning. I can't live with less because this album undoubtedly belongs to one of the musical highlights of 2010. Highly recommended! ***** Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
