2. Where the Wind Blows
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
4. Singers at the World's Dawn
5. Mother Love
6. Center Avenue
7. Can't Let Go
1999 Rising Sun Records
ARK
Ark
| 1. Burning Down 2. Where the Wind Blows 3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 4. Singers at the World's Dawn 5. Mother Love 6. Center Avenue 7. Can't Let Go 1999 Rising Sun Records |
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| Previous Releases By Ark: this is the debut |
Related Releases
(members): Conception - Flow (1997) [Ostby] Jorn Lande - Starfire (2000) DC Cooper - DC Cooper (1999) [Ostby] |
| With a trio of high caliber musicians, one would think ARK would be a musical delight. Guitarist extrordinaire, Tore Ostby, formerly from Conception and DC Cooper, coupled with exTNT drummer John Macaluso (who has also drummed for *shudder* KRS-1...yes, that is a rap artist) and voiced by David Coverdale's clone, Jorn Lande (from The Snakes and Vagabond) unite to form this band. So they wanted to drop all commericial trappings and just experiment with various influences. But this experiment blew up in their faces apparently. |
| The music of ARK is wandering, it winds around, sludging through a musical patchwork of new age, island, distorted grunge, jazz and mellow caterwauling. Listening through the painfully long tunes, there was little to grip onto that could be discussed in a positive light. Ostby must be the reason why some progressive touches survived, but it serves as a plodding killer instead of the saviour it could have been. Some of his guitar licks are nicely done, such as in "Can't Let Go", which is a nine + minute journey into a coma, with the last straw being the countdown and 'take off' samples at the end and that child singing offkey. Whoever thought THAT was a good idea should be shot (not literally of course). Lande, who normally hits Coverdale dead on, in his most youthful glorious days, like turning back the time to when David was king of the frontman heap, this time Lande shoots for the Coverdale/Page, depressive haggard wailing, which sounds forced and strained. Its painful and heartbreaking to listen to, just because its so bad. "Where the Wind Blows" is one of the highlights, a pleasant enough tune, mellow and progressive-like with a jazzy center, and a throwback to Dream Theater's own hideous experiment "Falling Into Infinity". The chorus is catchy in a 70s Whitesnake-y way, and the band in general, seems to be at their best when trying to hit the vincinity of vintage W'Snake. "Center Avenue" blends the most annoying aspects of uptight, hollow, odd drum driven progmetal with more broken Coverdale-ish wailing. It keeps along the same path for the majority of the song, and is just so amazingly irritating. The guitar in the middle is like a breath of fresh air, full of life with a mystical, alien edge. If only the song itself had been patterned more along the lines of the solo, it would have been a hundred times better. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" has a Spanish acoustic flair, and is a pretty decent song, just nothing out of the ordinary. |
| While a kind of 'super group', there was
alot of potential locked within that is never realized. The mellowness of most tracks, and
the distorted hollow pounding of others, will turn off both prog fans and the melodic rock
people that follow Lande's career alike. The album is messy and plods around on
excrutiatingly long drawn out tunes, where interest can be lost pretty quick among the
quirky repetitiveness and wasted talent. Fans of Whitesnake should pick up Lande's The
Snakes album with Moody and Marsden at the creative helm, and either DC Cooper or
Conception gives excellent examples of the genius of Tore Ostby. While I admire both as
being great musicians, their ARK collaboration leaves me hoping that they climb on their
'ARK' and sail away to other projects, leaving this experiment to sink in the sea and
forgotten. Rating
- 4.0 |