ATAVISM OF TWILIGHT - 1992

Generally, I would say that if you ever come across a progressive rock band with a name as pretentious sounding as "Atavism of Twilight", turn and run away. Quickly.

But I was lucky enough to read a review about this band that said all the right things about the music, like "...sounds like a combination of Djam Karet and Anglagard...", and I took a chance that really paid off - this is a fantastic cd from a 1992 band from Los Angeles that was making music like (almost) no one else.

The flute, mellotron and heavier riffing certainly bring Anglagard to mind often, while the punchy rhythm section with the fusiony bass is redolent of the classic Djam Karet sound. I sense that they were also influenced in part by some of the great U.S. prog bands of the 70's and 80's, like Cathedral, Yezda Urfa and Mirthrandir (to name just a few).

The four long songs on this cd are all instrumental - they start to sound a bit similar to each other near the end of the cd, so some points are lost on diversity of sound (though I must admit that they do a decent job of mixing pastoral passages in with the heavier/frenetic shtuff on most songs). And I'd love to have more than just 41 minutes of music here. But this was a really nice surprise - I'm shocked that the band never did another album.

As of this writing, the cd is pretty hard to find - I must have purchased the last copy from the website where I found mine because it just seemed to disappear from view there. But this is one to seek out if you are a fan of any of the bands mentioned above. (All pretentions are forgiven, gentlemen. ;-)
http://www.progarchives.com