Fruitcake - One More Slice (98)

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1 The Joke
2 Spirit of This Day
3 Hell's Kitchen
4 Between Reality and Dream
5 Have a Slice
6 Somewhat Late for Supper
7 Final Signals
8 Just Another Weird Vector

One of the important facets of Fruitcake's sound is its laziness.

The songs always take a Pink Floyd-esque medium tempo.

There is room between the thud of the bass drum and the thack of the snare drum.

One More Slice epitomizes this recipe and shows its cruel limitations.

Things worked rather well on the Norwegian progressive rock group's previous effort, How to Make It, and they would work even better on their next CD, Power Structure.

But this time around, the cake is bland — oh so bland.

All the songs sound the same, melodies are too easily forgettable, and the song structures themselves feel like newly built houses without any furniture in them yet.

Most last seven or eight minutes, even though they say all they have to say after three and a half.

Pål Søvik's lyrics often fall in the trivial domain, while his vocal delivery lacks character and appeal. "Hell's Kitchen" and "The Joke" have their moments, but that's not enough to salvage One More Slice.

What's left when you take the theatrical pathos out of neo-prog? Not much, that's what. Funny how adding an extra member (keyboardist Helge Skaarseth) resulted in diluting the group's arrangements.