Garden Wall – Forget the Colours

2002 Italy

Notes originally published in the Outer Music Diary June 4, 2005. Edited on September 18, 2007.

Garden Wall – Forget the Colours. 2002. Go to any music site and you're bound to see opinions on this album like "brilliant" next to "sucks" and little in between. There was once a metal band called Thought Industry who debuted with an album called "Song For Insects" (an album that is also listed in these pages). It was the kind of album that made you ask "Where did they get the idea to do that?" Absolutely mesmerizing in its creativity, yet so unfamiliar it was initially discomforting. That thin line between genius and retardation. If you ask me, I think Picasso is a bad joke, yet most art lovers vehemently disagree. Dali is a genius in my eyes, others very much see it the other way. It's always the most forward thinking ideas that draw the most radical opinions. Here, Garden Wall just did away with the keyboards altogether. However they added plenty of studio electronics to the mix as well as some well placed violin. The metal isn't of the familiar prog metal variety either – the roots are based in thrash, a genre not known for mixing it up with prog rock. And listening to Seravalle spew these vocals, you know he's one night away from rehab. If looking for something different, this is one I highly recommend.

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