The Castle
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- Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 3:25 am
Re: The Castle
From the sonic poem series this one is definitely the dud. I've listened to it for more than 50 or 60 times now and it's nothing special or even memorable. I was sad how disappointing this was after waiting for it for a very long time. It sounds like more of the same stuff TD has churned out in the last 4 or 5 years. I absulutely LOVE all TD eras, even the very last albums (sometimes I don't get into some of them, like Views From A Red Train, for example, or I always thought Atem was kinda "meh!", to mention an album from the early stages), but now it was all a bit uninspiring and tired to the point that it made me wonder if maybe the time has finally come for TD to get some REST!!! After all, more than 40 years and 120+ albums (not to mention the countless tours) are never easy to handle for a band, ESPECIALLY for its founder, Edgar Froese, who was responsible for most of the music on this album.
Now, I understand that the sonic poem series never really do any justice to their source materials, and in the 3 previous ones it's forgivable to a point because the music is just wonderful that no one ends up caring about that at all, but this album is just too light to be even considered as something that belongs to the Franz Kafka universe. This just sounds like a Chandra/Red Train/Atomic Seasons crossover. Those albums are brilliant, even if I never got into "Views...", but this one seems like a compilation of their "down" sides. Really, if Edgar had wanted to name this Chandra II, he could've gotten away with it pretty good.
The problem with most of these tracks is that they're always lacking something, be it development, be it force (sometimes they're so loud and noisy, but that's not force), etc. As with a lot of late Edgar's solo work, a track begins pretty good, it stays there without really maturing, he adds a couple of changes which unfortunately make it even worse, to the point of becoming a little mess (sadly this happens to the Thorsten compositions as well) and when he or Thorsten feel like it, they just dissolve it or fade it out quickly to end it abruptly and come on, let's get to tackle the next one, we don't have all day. I know this is dada, but come on, TD has seen clearer days on that field.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this album, I just think it falls into the mediocre and forgettable category. The tracks that stand out to me are no. 3, The Untouchable Castle, no. 6, Irredeemable Entity, no. 8 and no. 9 to some extent, Desperate Neverending Longing and Surrender and Adaption, and A Place Of Mercy, no. 10, also to some extent. Unfortunately not even these tracks save this album and they also suffer from everything I said before. It was just a plain weak effort. Finnegans Wake, Angel Of The West Window or Island Of The Fay over The Castle any day!! And I expect Chandra II to be on the same situation as The Castle. TD (Edgar) is done, in my opinion!! (hate to admit that, yeah!) They (he) deserve(s) a well and dignified retirement. They're (he's) great, we get it!!!