Tuesday 30 November 2021

Ice with Dwale (Neuschwanstein, 1979)

This band has never known an international recognition and still is a hidden gem from German Golden Era of Prog. "Ice with Dwale" is taken from the band's debut album "Battlement" (even if a promo cassette of previous songs was released on CD by Muséa label in 2008). Packed with acoustic passages (flute and guitars), but also gaced by a beautiful electric guitar, "Ice with Dwale" is a remarkable period piece, influenced by the likes of Genesis and Camel and featuring well found melodies.

A less known and very good side of German prog rock.

Keyboardist Thomas Neuroth and singer Frederic Joos do their best to run through the Charterhouse boys' early days and main features, but even so they are fresh and natural like a mountain spring. I really like the keys / flute interplays, something I rearely listened to and I surely recommend this song (and the whole album as to that) to all pastoral rock lovers. 

3 comments:

  1. The whole album here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW63y1vpJvA

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  2. Hello Domenico, I'm in the process of searching all the reviews of Battlement of Neuschwanstein on the net and I also came across your comments.

    As for "Alice in Wonderland", it is NOT the first album of Neuschwanstein. It NEVER was. AiW was only intended as a demo tape for potential promoters back in 1976. The master tape was therefore copied onto a cassette. Neuschwanstein were touring a lot with their adaptation of AiW at that time and were always looking for opportunities to perform. It was not until almost 30 years later that Roger Weiler, the band's guitarist at the time, handed over the cassette to the French record company MUSEA, who restored the tape's sound and released it as a CD. If you want to read more about Neuschwanstein, I recommend my Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_(band)

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  3. Thanks Dave. Your article is very, very good indeed. I'll try and explain what you say in my post.

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