Kalo - Spiral Dream (2004)

The one and only album from this Japanese band.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of programming, keyboards, drums, bass, guitars and female vocals. I believe the vocals are in Japanese although I am not sure.

Kalo is Masahiro Uemura from Vermillion Sands and some other bands. This is his solo project. Was his solo project as I am not sure what he is now doing.

The album starts out with some really heavy guitars and I am taking a notice..... big time. A really great guitar solo, it is...... There is hope in this one hour long album.

Well, the album changes nature after some minutes and we get some ambient music which is what we get until the end of this album.

It is though unfair to label this as an ambient new-age album. There are a lot of guitar solos and keyboards here. The very sparse and sporadic vocals also adds a lot of colours and substance. I have seen a reviewer in ProgArchives label this album as a mix of Vangelis and symphonic prog. I agree with that label.

This is by no means an exciting lively album. Neither is it a full on Japanese symphonic prog album. It is though an album with some good stuff and some rather uninteresting stuff. I am not entirely won over by this album. Nevertheless, it is an album somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points