Prog4you.com - Progressive Rock Review - Tony Garone

: : The Epic Review - Or the Review of the Epic : :

"The Epic of Gilgamesh" by Tony Garone was two years in the making and is well worth the time and effort. Here is the first album that I have reviewed to date that I will still be giving the occasional listen to ten years from now. That means that I will still enjoy this work when I am over the hill! What would make a work that enduring? Let's just see if I can explain.

As a young boy, I always loved a story and had a love for folklore and mythology. For those of you who don't know, "mythology" is any ancient religion other than our own. It followed that in time I came to enjoy any music that truly imparted a story or tale in an expansive, imaginative way. It was easy in the seventies to indulge myself with such works as "Supper's Ready" and "Tales From a Topographical Ocean." Since then I have always kept my ears open for anything that played to my liking. The Prog world has been ever obliging!

Prog became perhaps the first modern musical form to take musical story telling away from the operatic or Broadway writers and deliver splendid tales to the radio age. The ability to create and set a tale to music is a hallmark of the Prog genre and only the best and brightest can pull it off well.

"Gilgamesh" is a perfect example of musical storytelling. Gilgamesh was a mythical king of ancient Mesopotamia (2700BC) who founded the city of Uruk ruling with a cruel iron hand. Gilgamesh seemingly makes of himself an entity who is just a little bit less than the God's themselves. Accordingly, the God's take note of Gilgamesh and strive with him long throughout history. All of this was to have happened ages ago. Perhaps before the Egyptians crawled out of the Nile. Not a bad story line. I couldn't begin to describe the whole story here. In fact, I think I am only now coming to understand what the story is all about. A listener could easily cruise the net a little and learn a little bit more about friend Gilgamesh. This would only make a great tale greater. Stories that unveil themselves over time are always the ones that I listen to and carry with me over the years. Accordingly, I shall revisit this one for a long time to come.

Musically "Gilgamesh" is absolutely splendid! Great attention has been paid to giving the music a properly eastern flare. Modern and classical instruments marry nicely to produce a lush landscape of throbbing, percussive melodies that even feature a hint of Celtic and Caribbean accents. There is also a good amount of acoustic and classical guitar work throughout which soften and blend the pieces nicely. Vocally, the work is also first rate. Tony Garone has a nice rich voice, perfectly suited to the material. His vocal style and sound is perhaps a little "Ian Anderson" like. The lady role singers were also just right for the album. I enjoy them more with each listen.

Over all, this is also a very well produced arranged and recorded album. Don't let the eastern influence put you off. Every collection needs albums like this if only to expand our musical horizons just a little. Either way the Mideast influences here are not overwhelming. Quite the contrary, they are warm, rich and just about right on the money as far as I am concerned. Even if I were not a great fan of story telling, this work would still be of interest to me. As I put forward earlier, only the truly clever have the talent to put together works of this complexity and bring them to us so nicely.

I will recommend this work freely to those who love theme albums and to those who just like good music in general. There is currently a movie about Gilgamesh being filmed, which is to feature music from the album. Something to look forward to I think. I hope that another musical project is in the works. If you'r up for a little musical diversity give this one a try. I do not think that you will be disappointed.

I'll give this one an easy...................9 keyboards (and 6 drums for
having great percussion throughout!)

Reviewer: Steven J. Mynaugh

Visit the artist website:
http://www.garone.net/tony/gilgamesh.html

Email The band - tony@garone.net

Check out the Tony Garone MP3
available on our MP3 page

Discography
Gematria (1998)
At The Door (1985)
A Far Cry
The Epic of Gilgamesh (2000)

Cover art: Investiture of the King at Mari, 18 century wall painting