Shamall - Questions of Life CD digipak

With the double release "ambiguous points of view" Shamall produced a milestone in the band's history yet. Besides the absolutely outstanding quality of music, artwork and packaging were just excellent. Not easy to create a worthy successor for "ambiguous points of view". Almost two years passed since Shamalls last double cd. The new album "questions of life" came out as a very appealing digipak with a 12-page booklet. Musically, Norbert continues on the new album from where he stopped on "ambiguous points of view". Just like Shamall's recent work, this one is composed as a concept album. It consists of 18 tracks, which are musically and thematically strongly affiliated with each other, so you should listen to this opus as a whole.

It starts with the five-part track "what will happen". First impression, part I is very psychedelic and reminds strongly of Pink Floyd. Superb melodies and intriguing sounds fill the atmosphere, as you know it from Shamall. That gives you the heebie-jeebies right from the start. Alongside to the soundscapes electric guitar enters the stage, which dominates thoroughly here to create an appealing progressive rock sound. Admittedly Norberts vocals and his german accent need getting used to, similar to those from Eloy's singer Frank Bornemann, but if you let the music do it's magic, the vocals will burn into your mind because they fit perfectly to the music. The sophisticated drum programming is amazing, just like on Shamall's recent work. This is the proof, that he has a distinguished sense of rhythm next to his ability to create excellent compositions.

Shamall combines new sounds with warm synths from the 70's and 80's, which should please each fan of classic and melodic rock of that era. Relaxing atmospheric soundscapes and pounding rhythm parts afford an enthralling interplay. Melodies, surprising ones and variations of previous ones are smartly arranged to build a recurrent theme. Stilistically " Questions of life" bears resemblance to Pink Floyd's "Division Bell". But tracks like "prospective waves", "life part II" or "running and falling" are evocative of Pink Floyds "the wall". "Exegesis", which is redolent to Pink Floyd's "on the run" from the outstanding album "dark side of the moon" with it's moogsound at the end of the track. The keyboard in "resurge" sounds slightly like "the who" in their "who are you"-phase. And despite of that Shamall is not another Floyd-Clone - he's simply a very creative mind and musician who brings a lot of own ideas to his music.

"Questions of Life" is an awesome, worthy successor for his killer album "ambiguous points of view". Everyone who loves his work 2006 or every Pink Floyd fan will gorge "questions of life" as well. I fully recommend this album - in my collection it deserves a very special place (next to "ambiguous points of view"). Absolutely brilliant work, which is definitely one of the best albums of the year by now!!!

--- Stephan Schelle, July 2008 --musikzirkus-magazin.de (music-circus magazine)