RPWL: God Has Failed - Live & Personal (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After a first (and very successful) recording experience under the name of Violet District in 1992, Yogi Lang and Karl Wallner have met again under the acronym of RPWL and have started their new adventure by releasing "God has Failed" in 2000, first album of a band which, two decades later, now appears to be a reference in the neo-progressive world. Strongly influenced by Pink Floyd, this first album propelled at once the band to the top of the progressive division. Twenty years later, taking advantage of the forced break linked to the health crisis, RPWL revisits this founding album in the form of a live studio recording.

We won't review here the details of the different tracks (see for that the initial review) and their main source of inspiration, to be found obviously on the side of Pink Floyd, whether it is the languorous 'Hole in the Sky' and its female choirs or most of the mid-tempo tracks which inhabit this album. It is however at the level of the female voices that we will find the most changes compared to the original version, these ones taking more place than initially, as well in the numerous choruses as in the passages of lead vocals ('Wait Five Years'). We will also find some parts revisited in intimate acoustic mode, including the superb 'Crazy Lane' revisited mostly in piano / voice mode.

For the lucky owners of the original album, this version will not bring any revolution in their way of dealing with the work. If the performance (filmed and edited in DVD) has indeed been recorded live, the global rendering sounds like a studio version, the very balanced production (as usual with the Germans) allowing to distinguish very clearly each instrument. On the other hand, you can feel that the band has evolved in 20 years, not only in terms of its members, but also in its way of rendering the different parts in a more assured or more vigorous way as far as the riffs or the guitar solos of Karl Wallner are concerned. This is particularly striking on a track like 'It's Alright', the most dynamic of the collection that fills the 66 minutes of this album.

If the former proponents will find it useless once again to multiply the versions of the same album, "God Has Failed" in this "Live & Personal" version constitutes on the other hand an excellent door of entry in the musical world of RPWL, accessible moreover to the greatest number. - Official website

RPWL

GOD HAS FAILED - LIVE & PERSONAL

GENTLE ART OF MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE ROCK