Autumn Tears (USA) - The promotional sampler CD 
(75 min, "Dark Symphonies")
This is a compilation culling from several years of this group's efforts, - a kind of echoes from the past. Echoes of melodic Gothic Rock, that is. All the right orchestral chords are also there, plus plenty of angelic female vocals. Nice and melodic, with tons of beautiful vocals in the presence of the minimum quantity of purely instrumental arrangements, the music of Autumn Tears presented on the compilation generally looks very accessible. Sometimes it sounds even slightly monotonous and, on the whole, the songs are not quite progressive. Generally, it is always really difficult to comprehend what the band is really about, listening to a compilation. But after a couple listens to this promo CD, at least one thing becomes obvious - the music of Autumn Tears is quite original, and we all know that originality is the main trump of an artist of any Art. Also, such pleasant music, clearly a child of inspiration should shine with beauty like a wonderful pearl in the sea of mainstream tastelessness with mostly dead computer hits that like the digital bitches just use and abuse the senses of inhabitants. That's why I am so brave to rate this set, consisting of mere pages out of different books written by Autumn Tears in different years, with four "good stars".
Azazello (Russia) - 1996 - "The Wind in a Head" 
(39 min, unreleased)
"The Wind in a Head" is the very first recording ever done by Azazello and is actually their first demo album. It is radically and in every respect different from anything the band created later. Eight out of the eleven tracks here represent very simple Rhythm-and-Bluesy songs with reminiscences of early Beatles, though most of all, they remind me of songs typical for so-called VIA - vocally instrumental ensembles - the most widespread forms of youth collective creation in the (former) USSR. The solos of electric guitar and those of synthesizer are present only on a few tracks, while most of the songs here are based on the rhythms of acoustic guitar and the rather monotonous parts of rhythm section. There also are three ballads on the album, and surprisingly, all of them are nice and are really interesting. Apart from the vocal-based parts, these contain inventive instrumental arrangements consisting of diverse interplay between passages of acoustic guitar and solos of electric guitar, synthesizer, and hand percussion instruments. And nevertheless, most of the contents of this demo aren't of interest of the lovers of Prog.
(maybe this is a hint at anything but not the lion's pride?)
