Customer Reviews

Sacrament

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What an album! After having completely lost faith in this creaky old genre, along comes a record that shines with the same brilliance as the true classics, be they Genesis, Yes or King Crimson. But best of all: This sounds modern, and it is darn accessible, too! So much so that this is the album to give to anti-prog friends to convince them of the error of their ways. Which is not to say it isn't complex: I still haven't figured out the time signatures of the Tull-meets-Ozrics like track "The Crucible". And the playing is top-notch, in a way that makes you forget how intricate the music really is. More than anything, though, it is the melodies that stand out, and help make this an accessible and downright catchy prog album. A track like "Paper Moon" would have been an FM rock favorite had it been released in the 70's, with it's mellow groove and melancholy melody and a refrain that is impossible to get out of your head. But again there is a modern twist, with ambient synth backdrops and a laser sharp production. The production is great on the entire album, incidentally. Bass heavy at the bottom and all glossy and sweet on the top... The material ranges from pure folk ("The Last Rose of Summer") via symphonic rock ("Anamnesis") to heavier dark prog-fusion ("The Reach") and throughout all of the songs you are treated to Sylvia Erichsens divine voice, the virtuoso, classicaly influenced flute playing of Ketil Eniarsen and the melodic, emotive guitar of Jacob Holm-Lupo, as well as 1st class performances from all the other players. Warmly recommended!

This quote from a review from Satan Stole My Teddybear says it all:

"This disc finally realizes the potential of White Willow. Building on the hauntingly beautiful ambient sound of the previous two albums, the band decides to flesh out the sound with a bit more punch. The result is some of the best gothic influenced ambient progressive rock you'll ever hear.

Everything is pushed further than on the previous albums. The range of musical expressiveness is broadened. The vocals run from beautiful to aggressive. The folk and medieval influences are brought more sharply into focus. The skill of the musicians really comes out in the variety and intricacy of the songs. This is White Willow at their collective best, moving with unity and purpose toward a common musical and picturesque goal. outstanding on this disc are the instrumental track, "The Crucible", and two hauntingly beautiful tracks, "Paper Moon" and "Gnostalgia".

The production on this disc is the finest I've ever heard. The bass guitar can be heard at ranges well below those you'd normally pick up on a CD. The disc comes with a warning printed on the back: "WARNING: The extreme dynamic range of White Willow's music will test the limits of your sound system. Please listen with extreme caution." Much of this warning stems from the brilliant production job done on the disc. Some of it comes from the sudden and unexpected explosions from the quiet and delicate into the much heavier and more aggressive style that is scattered throughout the songs, giving the disc some really intense moments. The clarity of the sound is stellar. Ken Golden of The Laser's Edge is to be congratulated for what may be his best work yet.

The musical ambience on this disc is wonderful. The songs move and flow one into the next with such a seamless fit that it may take more than one listen to find the actual moments of division between tracks. The changes of tempo and direction that are the meat and potatoes of any progressive album are richly embedded into each track. The influences of Jethro Tull and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Focus can be seen in some of the instrumental moments. If you liked either of White Willow's previous albums, you will really like this one. This is symphonic, ambient progressive rock in top form. If you are looking for a wonderfully produced, well balanced album of truly different music, I highly recommend you look this one up for yourself."

wow... i bought this on reccomendation from a friend when i told him i was looking for some really moving music. I can say that this really delivers! I was expecting something a bit more melancholy, but the fact that it is, for the most part, a HAPPY kind of beautiful is something VERY welcomed by these ears. After years of abuse from the beauty of darker bands such as Opeth, Anathema, and Katatonia (which i THOROUGHLY enjoyed and still do) this change of pace is almost a music revelation for me. Mikael Akerfieldt of Opeth once said "Happy music has no soul, will never touch the soul like darkness can"... Well i totally agreed until i heard this! Now i may be a bit misleading here... this music isn't all roses and kisses and such, it definitely has a dark touch to it, but it isn't exactly doomy either. It has most likeness to the band Anglagard only with an AMAZING female singer and a whole lot more passion in the music... now Anglagard is a damn amazing band but even those mighty musicians don't stand up to one of my new favorite bands, White Willow. If you AT ALL love prog rock fueled with emotive lyrics and passionate melodies you MUST do yourself a favor and buy this disc! I have not since my first Dream Theater or Opeth purchase been so satisfied, and that is saying A LOT since i am a music FANATIC... i mean literally i think i should be on some kind of medication to stop this it is taking over my life heheh... ANYWAY back to topic just BUY it, if you hate it email me and i will buy it off of you. I could always use an extra copy.

Many of the modern symphonic rock bands owe a lot of their sound to British progressive rock bands like Genesis, Yes, and early King Crimson. The Norwegian group White Willow is also indebted to such bands, but they also stand out from most of them for their unique sound. Firstly, they draw from Celtic, Baroque, Renaissance flavors as influences. Vocal lines are more in the vein of baroque opera for example than symphonic prog bands there have been. Other notable influences, such as Italian symph prog, fusion, and Scandinavian folk music (used for rather dark musical shading) further delineate White Willow's distinct sound from their peers. Eclecticism is often associated with progressive music, but White Willow is even more resourceful than 99% of the prog rock crowd.

The vocals of Sylvia Erichsen are beautiful, and the music generally uses a layered array of percussions, string mellotrons, acoustic guitars, and flutes to create sublime, soft tapestries that are slow and vaguely mysterious. "Anamnesis" opens the album with pastoral atmospheres and beautiful flute "Paper Moon" is a gorgeous panorama of mellotrons and flickering electric guitar arpeggios. Another reviewer described the instrumental "The Crucible" as "Tull-meets-Ozrics" which is pretty much perfect. "The Last Rose of Summer" is a gorgeous ballad anchored to acoustic guitar and carried away by a beautiful, lilting flute part. Despite generally having vague poetry, White Willow gives this song pretty obvious lyrics: a lament for a cherished time now past. The slight pause when Erichsen and Holm-Lupo sing "Once...there was a springtime" is extremely atmospheric and affecting. "The Reach" is a multi-sectional flow of twisted nursery rhymes, evil prog shimmy, and other juxtaposed segments. "Gnostalgia" is another long piece, autumnal and gorgeous and possibly alluding to their concept album on gnosticism (see their excellent previous album _Ex Tenebris_).

What cannot go unmentioned is that this album is extremely well recorded. The album actually comes with a warning that states: "The extreme dynamic range of White Willow's music will test the limits of your sound system. Please listen with extreme caution." Seems like a somewhat pretentious way of putting it, but _Sacrament_ DOES sound incredible. Compared to their other releases, this one relies a little less on ambiance and more on transparency and space.

Some say White Willow is TOO mellow but that's only a problem for those who get bored with mellow music. _Ex Tenebris_ is an excellent album as well (less symphonic and complex than this one but I like it a little more). Their first album, _Ingis Fatuus_ is harder to find but also great. Unless you have compunctions about mellow stuff, I highly recommend White Willow. Cheers to Ken Golden for bringing this band to his Laser's Edge label.

I'd agree with previous reviewers that White Willow has a pleasantly melodic sound. The singer reminds me more of one of those alternative "waif" singers, like the singer for Velocity Girl than Annie Haslam of Renaissance. Which is to say that her voice doesn't have the soul and depth of Annie's voice. I guess I'm mainly disappointed that there was nothing too challenging here. The (..) review mentions heavy metal, goth, and prog influences. Aside from a few grungy power chords, there isn't much metal. On one of the early numbers they go through a very generic prog instrumental workout, nothing Gentle Giant, say, couldn't have done in their sleep. And as far as goth goes, they don't really take you into any dark and mysterious realms. I lost patience with it when, on the last track, the singer goes into this mad Ophelia bit, melodramatically chanting nursery rhymes. How corny! Anyway, didn't Genesis do something like that on Nursery Cryme? Overall, I think that they play things too safe, and lack in imagination, being content to be a rather faint echo of their influences. What's more, nothing resonates on an emotional level. I'd recommend Dead Can Dance instead of this to anyone interested in darkly mysterious melodic music with strong female vocals.

This is an album of great variety. It's progressive, but it varies from folk to heavy guitar a la King Crimson to spaciness to jazziness. It even has some accordion--not usually my favorite, but nice, here. It also contains nice flute work. The vocals are gorgeous; they are reminiscent of Annie Haslam only not so self-conscious. This is an album for anyone who likes Jethro Tull or Renaissance or ELP or Genesis or Yes.

After another band shuffle that leaves only Jacob Holm-Lupo from the original band line-up (but retains singer Sylvia Erichsen from the second album), White Willow has still managed to produce another beautiful album of melodic, gothic, prog rock that may be their best yet. Erichsen has a beautiful voice, but she shows she is not afraid to rock out with it a little as well (sounding similar to Annisette from the legendary 60's Danish group The Savage Rose when she does). The instrumentation that backs her is a gorgeous blend of acoustic and electric guitars, lush keyboards, and flute. With new flutest Einarsen on-board, this instrument comes much more into the forefront than on previous albums, and is certainly welcome. "Papermoon" is certainly one of the standout tracks. "The Crucible" is a great instrumental track, with a medieval sounding intro, and touches of Camel (a la "The Snow Goose") and early King Crimson. "The Last Rose of Summer" is a beautiful acoustic ballad on which Holm-Lupo takes lead vocal duties (with Erichsen providing beautiful harmonies). The band really comes together on the final two lengthy tracks, the soft and wistful "Gnostalgia" and the harder edged and ominous "The Reach". This is a unique album that will appeal to progressive rock fans, as well as fans of goth rock.

This is great album of mellow progressive folk/indie rock that has a very contemporary sound. Fortunately, this contemporary sound has nothing to do with North American stadium rock and Sacrament (2000) is a very organic sounding album.

The compositions are fairly elaborate and feature standard rock instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards) and acoustic instruments such as flute and acoustic guitar. The group is capable of some fairly sophisticated ensemble work and the odd time signatures really stand out. I like the female vocalist quite a lot. Her voice lends an indie/alternative-rock feel to much of the album. The keyboardist is just fantastic and prefers the warmer tone colors and analog synthesizers.

Although a quiet and reflective album, the dynamic range is wide. In fact, some of the louder passages come out of nowhere and can cause you to sit upright pretty quickly.

This release comes with a nice booklet that features photos of the group, lyrics, and some arty images. While the sound quality is not bad, the album sounds like it was recorded live in a basement. I like the less-than-perfect production though - it makes everything sound "real" and not slick and overproduced.

All in all, this is an exceptionally fine album of post-progressive/indie rock that should appeal to open-minded prog fans. I would also recommend this to indie rock fans that are looking for something a little different.

The early '70's Prog influences on this disc are too numerous to count. I will cite King Crimson and Return To Forever among the many others. If you like music from that era, you will want to pick this CD up. The material is not as challenging as Ex Tenebris, but this disc is a more polished piece of work. This is for the most part a quiet, mellow affair, but there are those occasion loud passages. There is plenty here to keep you musicians thinking. I don't know why the marketing types slap the Goth label on this disc. That distinction belongs on Signal To Noise, but not here. This disc is straight from the early Prog school and it compares quite favourably with the material from that era.

Fans of this band tend to differ when it comes to how much they like their early as opposed to late material. For me White Willow has gotten better with every release as they have moved somewhat away from their early more folk-prog roots. For others the opposite is true. Of the three White Willow albums that I own "Sacrament" is my least favorite. It is a very moody, mellow album with lots of dynamic shifts which lean in the symphonic folk progressive rock direction. The music is all good and the female vocals of Sylvia Erichsen fit in perfectly with overall feel of the pieces. Yet for me this is still an album of a band in transition that had not really found the right direction in where they wanted to go at this point. Opinions are going to vary a lot on this and the band's first two albums, but for me it is just average and the band would do much better later on. I am sure there are a lot of White Willow fans who have the exact opposite opinion.