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Trollheart · 01-01-2018, 03:24 PM

Album title: Emotional Wasteland
Artist: Unicorn
Genre: Progressive Rock
Nationality: Swedish
Year: 1995
Position in Discography: Second of three
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Extremely
I'm really not sure what this is doing on Metal Archives, as it's certainly not any kind of metal, never mind progressive, but what it very much is is progressive rock, and very good too. Nothing immediately different to any of the other prog rockers I've listened to, but very competent and listenable. The vocalist is Dan Swanö, apparently “one of the best respected musicians in metal”, but looking at his other bands, though the name is familiar, I don't see any that I really recognise and could say, oh so it's THAT Dan Swanö!

There are some nice Floydesque backing vocals on “The Boy and the Impossible”, and flute and cello colour the ballad “Hiding Again”, which is really quite lovely. Actually, it's quite long – nine minutes and change – and picks up in speed partially as it goes along, so I don't know if I'd call it a true ballad, but it certainly started off like one. There's a nice folky/sort of pastoral-early-Genesis-Big-Big-Train sound to the rather unoriginally-titled “The Sorrow Song” (title sounds like something off Nick Cave's The Good Son), but it's a nice song with some sweet vocal harmonies. Again, it kicks up quite a bit as it heads into its conclusion. “Waterfall” puts me in mind of a song Asia might have discarded, not really much to talk about, and a terrible, abrupt ending. Will the album end well I wonder? Well, “After Before” (who the hell makes up these titles?) is a decent closer with rather a lot of The Alan Parsons Project on it, and some fine guitar, so yeah, I guess. No idea what all that gibberish is at the end though; kind of ruins the effect.

Check out more from this artist? I would. I wouldn't be desperate to hear all their other albums, mind, but I wouldn't avoid one if it came up again.

01-01-2018, 03:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Album title: Emotional Wasteland Artist: Unicorn Genre: Progressive Rock Nationality: Swedish Year: 1995 Position in Discography: Second of three Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Extremely I'm really not sure what this is doing on Metal Archives, as it's certainly not any kind of metal, never mind progressive, but what it very much is is progressive rock, and very good too. Nothing immediately different to any of the other prog rockers I've listened to, but very competent and listenable. The vocalist is Dan Swanö, apparently “one of the best respected musicians in metal”, but looking at his other bands, though the name is familiar, I don't see any that I really recognise and could say, oh so it's THAT Dan Swanö! There are some nice Floydesque backing vocals on “The Boy and the Impossible”, and flute and cello colour the ballad “Hiding Again”, which is really quite lovely. Actually, it's quite long – nine minutes and change – and picks up in speed partially as it goes along, so I don't know if I'd call it a true ballad, but it certainly started off like one. There's a nice folky/sort of pastoral-early-Genesis-Big-Big-Train sound to the rather unoriginally-titled “The Sorrow Song” (title sounds like something off Nick Cave's The Good Son), but it's a nice song with some sweet vocal harmonies. Again, it kicks up quite a bit as it heads into its conclusion. “Waterfall” puts me in mind of a song Asia might have discarded, not really much to talk about, and a terrible, abrupt ending. Will the album end well I wonder? Well, “After Before” (who the hell makes up these titles?) is a decent closer with rather a lot of The Alan Parsons Project on it, and some fine guitar, so yeah, I guess. No idea what all that gibberish is at the end though; kind of ruins the effect. Check out more from this artist? I would. I wouldn't be desperate to hear all their other albums, mind, but I wouldn't avoid one if it came up again. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018