Customer Reviews

Old Loves Die Hard

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When i was 7 years old i listened bands like Deep Purple, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Kiss (!). Then, one day, when i was lookin for a LP of Kiss, my cousins found an album of a rare German Band called Triumvirat. Then they (my cousins) known the progressive rock but i didn't. For recomendation of my cousins i bought the album with the title "Old Loves Die Hard". That was my first contact with the wonderful world of the Progressive Rock. Twenty seven years after i love this album yet. With the internet and more sites of information about the progressive rock i can know more this wonderful band. Although the masterpieces more recognized are Illusions on a Double.. and Spartacus, this album is excellent. Maybe more commercial, whatever the composition and perfomance are of very high quality. Moreover, the production is better that his predecessors Spartacus and Illusions.. The highlights of the album are "Panic On 5th Avenue" and "The History of Mystery" (Part one and two), whatever the instrumental "A Day In A Life" is a track very nice and one of my favourites of all times, soft at the beginning and hard at the final. The album hold the classic style of triumvirat, finest symphonic rock. Curiosly this band wasn't supported in Europe in his time, I'm not sure what is the cause (a poor Clon of ELP?, to me this point of view is very very bad, terrible and very poor to describe Triumvirat). I though that is time to justice for Triumvirat (with the help of EMI with the reissue of the early collection) and finally to be recognized like THE GREATEST BAND OF GERMAN PROGRESSIVE ROCK (Triumvirat is my Top Ten of best band of Progressive Rock of all times). I recommend this album to all fan of progressive rock, specialy for those about to symphonic rock. For last, the only disappointment is the change of the artwork. Personally i prefer thousand times the original artwork with the cover with the little white rat observed with a magnifying glass.

"Illusions in a Double Dimple" is the best album recorded by Triumvirat, and "Old Loves Die Hard" ranks at the second position in that list. Helmut Köllen went out to pursue a solo career (unfortunately, he had just completed his first solo album when he died), and was replaced by Dick Frangenberg (the original bass player) and English singer Barry Palmer. Highlights: the title track (beautiful), "A Cold Worried Lady" (moving), "A Day in the Life" (amazing).

This album is progressive rock music. However, there is some mainstream catchiness to it nonetheless. The vocal numbers tend to either uptempo numbers, like The history of mystery, or plaintive piano ballads, like 'Cold old worried lady', which is suicidal.

The instrumental parts alternate between softer, piano driven parts to uptempo, energetic bits full of synthesiser imagery and sonic audio soundscapes. Despite this being a German Band, the lyrics are in English, as sung by Barry Palmer. The music is written by the band's keyboardist, Fritz. His piano playing has a classical orientation. The instrumental parts to 'History of mystery' has an almost disco beat to it, but the vocal parts, especially with the driven delivery, have a rock feeling to them. There is quite a bit of improvised soloing on the record. My favourite track is 'a day in the live', it begins as spaced-out synth driven psychedelia, then there's some classical piano that's very beautiful and then finale is a bit rocking. The song is actually divided into three part. The music is all very good and some of it is quite original, and you can understand most of the lyrics that are sung, so I'd rate it somewhere around 4/5.

Well, you know that usually I don't like the so called "derivative prog bands" (think of Pendragon as Marillion's or Camel's clones since the early eighties, Pentwater as a reply to Yes in late sixties/early seventies, then also these "Triumvirat" in the seventies, a derivative band a-la ELP, whose music fortunately was more focused on their songwriting, despite They reached their peek with "Spartacus" only)...but apart from my introduction above, I think of this "Old Loves..." as a good and more "commercial" album, characterized by a vocalist- Barry Palmer-in a kind of trouble in his role, even though He's well coordinated by Jürgen Fritz here, true master mind of the band, which brings about a mood a-la Rick Wakeman regarding the melody and a-la K. Emerson (in a more simple way) regarding the harmony, like within "Panic on 5th Avenue"; while for instance "History of Mystery" is a weak episode, reminding me of the atmosphere inside "Love Beach" by ELP, that I don't like very much...and on the same wave there's "I Believe" (the opener), the most commercial track of the present album, which seems to be quite "journeysque" (unfortunately without Steve Perry on vocals); but the lyrics are quite good after all!! Instead the arrangement regarding the ballad ""A Day In the Life" is reminiscent of a mood which was quite typical in late seventies, even though the piano is evolving towards a more original melody at the piano...Then I have some doubts about the lyrics of "A Cold Old Worried Lady", in my opinion not so inspiring (like Palmer's vocals), as well as about the final title track, which is neither powerful nor so epic, but here the vocalist performs a better job- in a soft style- and such feature could be enough to make their work more suitable for the lovers of other different and more simple music genres (actually this German Band never rechead a commercial success, but nevermind...)
Interesting product, not their best one in my opinion!

You know, I feel bad for constantly comparing Triumvirat to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Yes the two bands have a remarkably similar sound because both have a desire to play extended keyboard and synth jams, however the one thing I did *not* originally take into account is that Triumvirat has a stronger focus on songwriting and, dare I say, perhaps an even stronger focus on melody.

Old Loves Die Hard seems like a logical continuation of Spartacus to me, and after hearing Mediterranean Tales, I can see just how much the band matured and improved their instrumental chops in such a short time. It seems Triumvirat just gets better and better with each release.

"Panic on 5th Avenue" has more keyboard and synth jams remarkably similar to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's classic early to mid 70's period, and towards the end of the 8-minute track comparisons to Brain Salad Surgery are extremely likely to occur, but I can't help but be completely blown away by the talent of Triumvirat to write really memorable and exciting jams. I mean, just *listen* to this stuff. It's exceptionally melodic and just awesome. Some of the synths even remind me of the mid 70's period of Camel, which is another benefit in my book. In fact this song is so darn good that I don't even WANT to compare the band to Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Camel anymore.

I find it interesting that parts of "History of Mystery" resemble a few select moments of "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman", the Emerson, Lake & Palmer song from their Love Beach album. The part in particular I'm thinking of is the synth breaks that appear in between the verse melody in the middle of the track. Interesting because the ELP album didn't come out until 2 years later. Anyway, "History of Mystery" features a couple different vocal melodies and the very first one reminds me of Kansas. Imagine Kansas with a stronger emphasis on classical piano playing. Overall a highly memorable straight forward song with a ton of emphasis on melody.

"I Believe" is based around an extremely uplifting vocal melody, immediately indicating to me that the band was heading in a different direction (obviously because Old Loves Die Hard was released in the commercial-approaching year of 1976). I like when the lead singer says in the opening line that he sold his soul for rock and roll. Didn't the members of Black Sabbath do the same thing back in 1976? Anyway "I Believe" has powerful lyrics and I don't mean to bring it up again but the uplifting vibe is really a nice thing, and the childrens choir at the end just puts the icing on the cake. I also LOVE the bouncy piano solo after the 5-minute mark.

"A Day In the Life" is a respectable Beatles cover song... just kidding! It's something else entirely! It starts off with what I consider dated instrumental balladry totally reminiscent of 1976. You'll know what I mean when you hear the opening few minutes- we've heard THAT several times by other bands. Only in the mid to late 70's did that particular sound exist. Anyway, it soon changes into a complete piano piece taking inspiration by not only classical artists, but of course, Emerson, Lake & Palmer's debut album. Remember those lengthy piano jams? It's more of the same here. Luckily Triumvirat doesn't just play piano for the sake of playing piano- they actually back it up with memorable notes and passages. I love it. Right when the piano jam starts, comparisons to Cat Steven's "Morning Has Broken" are inevitable.

Overall, Triumvirat's fourth album proves to me they were in fact, the real deal, and comparisons to other bands doesn't even need to be taken into consideration to enjoy this exciting music.

This album was my first Internet purchase, back in 1995, on a site called CDnow, now part of Amazon. I was rebuying my old beloved LPs in CD format, and this one was (and is) a must! There are 4 albums of Triumvirat that in my opinion everyone who likes Progressive Rock must have: this one (Old Loves Die Hard), Spartacus, Illusions On A Double Dimple, and my favorite one, A La Carte.

I had several Triumvirat LPs as a kid, and started to wonder if I would still like this music, especially since my tastes have evolved significantly in the past thirty years. One listen confirmed that I still do. I also realized how much my own composing style has been influenced by Triumvirat's music! Now I have to get a couple more Triumvirat albums!

This is a hit and miss album - If you get the theme of the album the songs can hit home. Cold Old Worry Lady and Old Loves Die Hard are classics. Usual great music and vocals. Rated three of the the three Triumviat classic albums.

I had this on LP when I was in high school and loved it then; I still do now. I own Illusions on a Double Dimple, Spartacus, and Old Loves Die Hard. Illusions is the most progressive (in my opinion) and Old Loves feels more moody. If you are into prog rock, you definitely need to add some Triumvirat to your collection!

resently married. one of my husband and my interest is music. He has turned me on to Camel, triumvirat, David Gillmore ect... Which in turn i have turned him on to some of my music, New Radicals, Keb 'Mo, Todd Rungren. Our musical interest is wide, and we appreciate all varitys of music. We were both excited to find Triumvirat. Can not wait to receive it