I concluded my review of Ars Nova's final album Seventh Hell with "Their first three albums are likely to be permanent fixtures of the collection given my personal history with the band, and their fourth is TBD. Otherwise I either didn't buy, or keep, the others. I prefer their more traditional progressive rock keyboard trio albums."
And here we are evaluating that fourth opus, which I haven't heard since I first bought it 23 years ago. The album starts off, as I expected, in keyboard trio ELP via Italy bombast mode, but as it went along, I did pick up something a bit different on this release. One is the obvious Egyptian styled interludes which tie back to the album concept. They're almost at the novelty level, but I can appreciate what they're attempting to do. That alone wouldn't move the needle. What was more interesting to me is that The Book of the Dead sounded oftentimes like an electronic rock album versus symphonic prog. I read a few reviews to corroborate my findings, and I haven't noticed anyone else picking up on that. I think part of the reason for this sound is that Ars Nova at this point were really a duo of keyboards and drums. They had the ex-bassist of Deja-Vu helping out, but he's clearly a session player here. And Keiko is breaking out the sequencers on more than one occasion. That's a unique enough diversion for me to consider holding onto this title for longer. Overall I enjoyed a +1 listen. And that should close the lid on my Ars Nova collection. I still need to revisit and document Transi and The Goddess of Darkness, but I anticipate both making the cut for different reasons, that I'll get into at that time.
Ownership: CD: 1998 Musea. Jewel case with recording details.
2001 (first listen); 1/16/24 (review)
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