GARDEN WALL - THE SEDUCTION OF MADNESS - 1995

Основателем и бессменным руководителем коллектива стал талантливый вокалист, мультиинструменталист и автор большинства композиций Алессандро Серавалле. Дебют "Garden wall" состоялся в 1993 году, когда на небольшом немецком лейбле "Music is Intelligence" вышла первая студийная работа группы, "Principium".

Уже на этом альбоме был виден высокий уровень сложности композиций, вполне сравнимый с серьезными прог-работами 70-х годов. Несмотря на то, что вокал Алессандро и его тексты вызывали некоторые ассоциации с Питером Хэммилом, "Garden wall" звучали свежо и современно. В 1994 году вышел второй альбом итальянцев, "Path of dream".

Garden wallЕсли на "Principium" Серавалле и компания метались между классическим прог-роком и современным прог-металлом, склоняясь больше к первому, то на "Path of dreams" музыканты погрузились в симфо-прогрессив. Альбом был наполнен полифонией, а солирующим гитарам и клавишным отводились равностепенные роли. Более половины композиций были чисто инструментальными, а авторство некоторых из них принадлежало клавишнику Мауро Оливо. Эти вещи, исполненные на фортепиано и синт-клавесинах, носили средневековый оттенок.

Третий альбом "Garden wall" был записан полноценным составом: теперь в группе помимо Серавалле и Оливо числились басист Фабрицио Зидарих и ударник Камилло Коллелуори. "The seduction of madness" вновь был не похож на предыдущие работы. За исключением "средневековой" "Noia", вальсовой "Le chateau fou" и прифанкованной "All the best years" альбом звучал достаточно тяжело и вполне подпадал под категорию прог-метал.

Garden wallСпустя полтора года после "Seduction" вышла последняя работа группы на "Music is Intelligence". По стилю "Chimica" можно было охарактеризовать как сплав двух предыдущих альбомов. Основу диска составили две композиции, "Chemotaxis" и "La belle dame", общей длительностью более 45 минут. В 1999 году должен был появиться очередной полноформатник "Садовой изгороди", но вместо этого лейбл выпустил миньон "Aliena(c)tion", после чего… обанкротился. Пока Камилло занимался поисками новой крыши, Алессандро полностью переаранжировал весь материал для будущего альбома и добавил к нему пару новых треков.

В итоге "Forget the colours", вышедший в 2002 году на "Mellow records", звучал абсолютно по новому. Агрессивный прог-метал здесь был разбавлен элементами арт-рока, джаз-фьюжна, техно-метал, вальса и фолка. Шестой студийник прогрессивных итальянцев, в очередной раз отразивший смену стилистики и завершивший трилогию, начатую на "Forget the colors" и "Aliena(c)tion", появился в продаже весной 2005 года.
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No doubt, Garden Wall is the most underrated prog-band of the present day. As a matter of fact, these very Italians are, in my opinion, the most innovative and original contemporary progressive band. Led by the guitarist / vocalist, composer / lyricist Alessandro Seravalle, Garden Wall has already four fully developped albums, each being different from another, though all of them are made within the framework of the band's own original stylistics. Up to now there have been no reviews on Garden Wall in the net, except for Gibraltar, where you find just few lines that describe this band as "a sort of Neo compared to Asgard" (?!- it's possible, because ex-members of Asgard from time to time are in Garden Wall's line-up: but what a comparison?).

Already their first album shows that this is a very original band with a level of the complexity of compositions that can be quite compared to the most serious albums of the '70s. However, Garden Wall sounds not like a band (so many of them!) recycling the ideal, though old, structures, but really modern and fresh. I don't take into account a slightly accented vocals of Seravalle here, because it's really original and impressive, though, I think, Alessandro may have been inspired by Peter Hammill, in vocals as well as in lyrics. Indeed, Garden Wall's lyrics are as profound and full of grotesque with a touch of surrealism sometimes. "Principium" and the latest album "Chimica" can be called stylistically as being somewhere in the middle between classic prog-rock and prog metal, with the former nearer to the classic prog-rock genre.

The second album from Garden Wall "Path of Dreams" sounds unexpectedly after the familiar "Principium". This is, on the whole, an album of the purest classic symphonic progressive, full of polyphony, with equally prominent roles of guitars and keyboards so as to create a full-blooded piece of art of symphonic rock. "Path of Dreams" is a more mature work than the already distinguished debut, with countless innovative and complex arrangements within every song, fantastic interplays between keyboards and electric or acoustic guitars, energetic and dramatic vocals already without accent (only not counting the pronunciation of the word communion). However, here more than a half of the compositions are solely instrumental, including the most beautiful piece of the album The Bride Of The Wind. Some instrumentals have been written only by Olivo and played with piano and synth-clavecin and sound with a clear "breath" of the Middle Ages. Maj di Muart is the only one from the whole discography where Alessandro sings in Italian, his native language. So, already the second album from Garden Wall turned out to be a true masterpiece of progressive rock.

The third Garden Wall's album "The Seduction of Madness" (their first with a full-bodied line-up) sounds again too unexpectedly after a symphonic "Path of Dreams". With the exception of Naia, where Alessandro sings only to the accompaniment of medieval keyboard instruments, this is on the whole the heaviest album from these guys. However, you are unlikely to perceive it as a prog metal album at all: this is simply a really heavy work of symphonic progressive rock, another state-of -the-art album from such a young band. I've never heard such a marvellous style! And it's not a mix of symphonic rock with prog metal, no way! Just listen to the gems like La Chatea Fou, an incredible heavy... waltz, and you'll understand, what a gem goes unnoticed up to now!

One and a half years later Garden Wall are back with their fourth album, whose release is known, I'm sure, just to a handful of people, for there has been NO information on "Chimica" on the net for 18 month since the release date. And if you the guys from Garden Wall, are reading these lines, please welcome to our "Progressor" site! Just write me at e-mail: vit@progressor.uz, and you will be welcome guests on it. Coming back to "Chimica", we learn that this new one sounds again differently from any of Garden Wall's previous albums, as always. The first 35-minute Chemotaxis is a major outstanding composition here , as well as another long one from Seravalle La Belle Dame (over 10 minutes, they form the whole album together!). This time we hear an excellent mix of both styles from "Path of Dreams" and "The Seduction of Madness", though the way arrangements are made here is an absolute breakthrough. The rest 20 minutes contain three short fine instrumentals and two songs. The first of the songs sounds original and striking, though the main theme is based on a kind of rock'n'roll, but it's not my cup of tea. The second song complets the album with slight Hammilesque intonations (circa "Roaring Forties"). Of course, it's just a matter of taste, but as for me, this album would have all the six stars of mine, if it weren't for the two abovesaid songs, and not just five and a half...

Summary is simple. Garden Wall is one of my dearly loved prog bands ever: Top 20 of all the prog-years. This is the best Progressive Rock band ever since "U.K." and "Marillion" (and just due to "Brave", their only true classic (not neo) progressive rock album). I am just waiting for Garden Wall's next album...
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