Minstrel's Ghost - Road to Avalon

A Progressive Journey Down An Old Road Written and produced by Blake Carpenter, with artwork by world renowned artist Ed Unitsky and featuring Zoltan Csörsz Jr. (The Flower Kings and Karmakanic) on drums, Troy James Martin (LeeAnne Savage) on bass, Colin Tench (Corvus Stone and Bunchakeze) on Guitar, Marco Chiappini (Gandalf's Project) on keyboards and Blake Carpenter (The Minstrel's Ghost) on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards The Road To Avalon is finally here! Drawing on influences ranging from Genesis to Iron Maiden The Road To Avalon is a crossover-prog album full of enthusiastic keyboard leads, melodic guitar solos, smooth vocal lines and powerful rhythm sections. Let The Minstrel's Ghost and his knights take you on a journey back in time. This musical retelling of the Arthurian tales begins with stroll down the road to Avalon where we meet Merlin the Magician who takes us to see the Lady of the Lake. There we receive Excalibur the greatest sword of them all to be given to Arthur the new King of Britain. With Excalibur Arthur and his knights bring peace to all the land and at Camelot Arthur weds Guinevere. Guinevere however is in love with Lancelot and betrays her King with this knight. Arthur, being shown this betrayal by his sister Morgana has Guinevere and Lancelot banished breaking the ties that keep the kingdom together. This brings on the blackest of days. Merlin has been tricked by Morgana and cannot escape his prison. Mordred, the son of Arthur and Morgana through magic many years ago, has his sights on Camelot and with his army defeats Arthur at the battle of Camelon thus ending the glorious reign of the one true King. The Digital version of this album is 12 tracks. The CD is slightly longer, essentially 2 tracks with 6 movements, it also contains a 15minute 50 second bonus track. 'The Minstrel's Ghost is the 2012 sensation, a fabulous musical creation that has all the hallmarks of a classic prog album, where old school symphonics meet the new pristine university. American multi-instrumentalist Blake Carpenter has smartly surrounded himself with some seriously gifted players most notably Hungarian Zoltan Csorsz (still the best Flower Kings drummer ever), who positively explodes here, as well as gifted guitarist Colin Tench (of the thrilling Corvus Stone, Colin Tench Project and Bunchakeze). Others include Marco Chiappini of Gandalf's Project (a close relative in this semi-medieval-pop-prog genre) who shines on devastating organ and assorted ivories. .Bassist Troy James Martin holds it all down with muscular proficiency .And of course main man and master musician Blake Carpenter, who has really carved himself a name for himself with this magnificent opus!' Review by tszirmay Prog Archives ''The Road to Avalon'' is everything a Classic Prog fan can dream of and, despite the evident influences and strong resemblances to famous Prog bands, holds all the right components of a good Progressive Rock album.It contains semi-long and short compositions, balanced between epic instrumental themes and sensitive vocal explorations, with a bit of accesibility through the way to make things a bit easier and the overall style comes like a cross between THE FLOWER KINGS, Dutch outfit US, MANGALA VALLIS and early MARILLION.Of course the album offers huge references to Classic Prog acts such as GENESIS, YES or even KANSAS at the most rhythmic parts.The arrangements are tight with tons of multi- layered synthesizers (MARK KELLY's early style comes constantly to mind) and lovely piano textures in a very good performance by Chiappini, supported by a confident rhythm section and melodic guitar themes, often with a ROINE STOLT-kind of approach.The overall style sounds very atmospheric and epic with some nice symphonic atmospheres, containing a strong melodic content, while Carpenter's voice recalls a bit BERNARDO LANZETTI's warm, GABRIEL-esque color. Review by psarros Prog Archives.