Saturday 13 October 2018

Oaksenham - Upon All The Living And The Dead (2018)


The second album from this band from Armenia.

The band is a quintet with a lineup of bass, drums, guitars, grand piano, sound effects and violin.
Three guest musicians provides flute, basoon and vocals.

I honestly thought this band was gone and disbanded for good after their superb 2006 album Conquest Of The Pacific. But I was wrong. Thankfully, I was wrong.

You can find my ten years old review of that album here.

This band from this landlocked country is again pretty much interested in nautical matters. See the art-work above.

Times has changed since 2006 and so has this band. Gone is the more eclectic music. In comes a much more fusion and folk rock influenced take on progressive rock.

Camel springs to mind on this album. That and their country Armenia and their folk music.

The music is really gentle and pedestrian throughout. There is a lot of gentle fusion influences here in their brand of symphonic prog.

The female vocals adds a lot of colours to this album. An album performed mostly with gentle violins, guitars and grand piano. Yes, the word "gentle" again.

This album is not as good as their debut album. It is also a different album too. Nevertheless, this is a good album and one who will bring joy to a lot of prog rock fans. Welcome back, Oaksenham !

3 points

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