OK, OK, that last line is a little cheesy.
The Washington Post, Friday, August 11, 2006; Page WE10
TEMPEST "The Double-Cross" Magna Carta
STICK WITH AN UNPOPULAR style of music -- no, let's not say "unpopular"; how about "niche"? -- and there's a good chance that, sooner or later, you'll overlap the latest cultural trend. The Celtic-folk/progressive-rock group Tempest finally hits on popular relevance with "Captain Kidd," the opening track on "The Double-Cross," which the liner notes describe as "our third in a series about infamous pirates." Tempest's leader and co-composer of the song, Lief Sorbye, takes on the persona of the privateer-turned-scalawag in the lusty, string-flayed tune. The traditional "Hangman," with a brooding melody and a dark bass line, could be about Kidd's execution -- where the rope broke.
The noted British folk critic who once called the San Francisco-based band the worst in its genre must have left his sense of humor in his other anorak that day; the band takes its bombast seriously but itself less so. (It's been known to reenact a scene from "This Is Spinal Tap" onstage.) It's the sort of music the studio tends to constrain and the concert hall tends to favor. Sorbye's vocals are serviceable; his take on "Eppy Moray" can't match that of Trevor Lucas's of Fotheringay, back when Sorbye was still a school kid in Oslo, Norway, but he puts his heart into it. But Tempest's instrumentals outstrip their songs, particularly the inventive, if somewhat cheesily named, "Vision Quest," whose waves of keyboards will make Yes fans say, "Yes, please!"
--Pamela Murray Winters
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