Last summer, I reviewed a cd of various artists called “Giant For an Hour: Music Inspired By And In Tribute To Gentle Giant”. Now I have the pleasure to review the second part called “Giant For Another Hour: More Music Inspired By And In Tribute To Gentle Giant”. Both of these albums feature a bunch of fans of the band creating music, as the title suggests, music inspired by and in tribute to the band Gentle Giant.
This time around I see some of the songs going beyond the Gentle Giant shadow, so to speak, into some very original sounding progressive music. In fact in many ways, the music here sounds more like a band effort rather than individual entries. The songs segue so well into another thus almost making it a conceptual piece, music wise. It makes me wonder if there’s a band in the making here.
Since the music flows so well, it makes it hard to pick a favorite track but the first track “Let Truth Reveal The Beast” by Dan Bornemark and Helena Josefsson, is a great way to start off this CD. It helps bring a twist on the bland tribute albums that tend to be pale imitations of the originals. This idea of doing original music while being inspired by the band Gentle Giant is a refreshing thing. Maybe something like this can be done for other bands.
This is a hard sell for me but if you enjoy well written and played progressive music whether it be rock, folk or symphonic then this is a very nice album to add to your collection. If you’re a fan of how Gentle Giant approaches music then these artists are worthy of your investment. They really do pay tribute to one of progressive rock’s greatest bands but in their own way!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on June 12th, 2007
