LUCID DREAM: The Great Dance Of The Spirit (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

We had left the Italians of Lucid Dream (not to be confused with their Norwegian colleagues from Lucid Dreams) on a positive note four years ago (already!). Their new album, "The Great Dance of Spirit", a concept album based on the search for the subtle energetic dimensions of the Great Spirit (understands who can), closes the trilogy started with "The Eleventh Illusion" (2013) and continued with "Otherworldly" (2016).

On the line-up side, it's the big clean-up: Alessio Calandriello (vocals) and Gianluca Eroico (bass) who were part of the original line-up have disappeared, leaving only survivor and master on board the guitarist Simone Terigi. However, since the latter was the main composer of the band from the beginning, the arrival of the new members does not mark a big stylistic difference with the previous albums.

The trademark of Lucid Dream is a seventies hard rock that allows itself many digressions in progressive landscapes to which "The Great Dance of Spirit" doesn't seem to derogate. However, the two tracks that begin the album are enough to destabilize the most timid: 'Wall of Fire' and 'Desert Glass' offer a more muscular profile than what Lucid Dream had accustomed us to, between agressive riffs, pachydermic rhythm and strong vocals, much closer to heavy metal than to hard rock.

After this thunderous introduction, the atmosphere will calm down a bit even if we stay until 'The War Of The Cosmos', in an energetic and lively music going from hard to metal and passing through the AOR, with the emphasis on guitars (Terigi's solos are still as inspired as ever), vocals often reminiscent of Klaus Meine (Scorpions) and vigorous drums. Only the very short 'Moving Sands' plays the sweet card, announcing the second part of the album.

Because everything changes with the instrumental 'The Realm of Beyond', where for the first time a strings trio steals the show on guitars with an elegant melody. From that moment on, the album moves into a much calmer world: the electric guitars are replaced by their acoustic sisters, the drums are discreet when they are not completely absent, Robert Tirati's voice, much more sober, takes the place of Karl Faraci's, and the keyboards and the strings trio are now in the spotlight. Beginning with the very floydian 'Golden Silence', which sounds like it comes from "Wish You Were Here", this second part goes deeper and deeper into planing psychedelics territories to end on the ritual accents of 'Prayer For The Great Spirit' and 'Wakan Tanka', obsessive litanies giving to the end of the album a mystical and hypnotic character.

If Lucid Dream's desire to bring diversity to its subject is admirable, those who will have appreciated the heavy side of the first half of the album might get bored on the second half. Et it goes the same in the opposite way. Nevertheless, "The Great Dance of The Spirit" remains well-made, solidly interpreted and endowed with pleasant melodies. - Official website

LUCID DREAM

THE GREAT DANCE OF THE SPIRIT

AUTRE LABEL

HARD ROCK