Rachel Mother Goose
Synra Bansho

A band with such a name must come from some strange place where English isn’t the thing, like Japan. Synra Bansho is their new album that was first released in Japan but then had European release with a bonus track making it a dozen tracks and over an hour of playing time. The artwork is otherwise cool, so it does at least look quite exciting – but is it?

Usually Japanese bands have a distinctive style, but Rachel Mother Goose sound fairly typical of the progressive styled heavy metal, similar to several European bands. They have some neoclassical touches having once started out as a neoclassical band before evolving into a more progressive style. The album is quite varied, and it is well produced with a pretty interesting sound. The vocalist is rather good as well, but the variation isn’t enough to keep a playing time of over an hour interesting. The album is too long for my taste, and that kind of undoes the qualities it has so the feeling is slightly less positive than it should have been, clearly they could have done away with ten-fifteen minutes without sacrificing anything.

Other than being too long I don’t have too many complaints about this album, but the long playing time is a moot point for me. There are many things I like as well, especially when the pace gets lower like in The Clock is Tickin’ and the ending bonus track, at those time it gets interesting and good. But there are other strong points as well, it is an album that sounds fresh and interesting – it is a fine effort with the negative aspect being a way too long playing time, it is impossible to care about the album for the amount of time required.

Synra Bansho is a good album, no denying that. It is not a memorable album however, and it doesn’t stand out in any regard. I find that while I like listening to this album, there are so many better choices out there. Synra Bansho never catches my full attention, it is there at times but never the whole time.

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