RPWL is s neo prog rock band from Germany that was formed in 1997 as a Pink Floyd cover band. Three years after the band formed they started to make their own music. While their music was still rooted in the that 70s and 80s Pink Floyd Prog era their debut release God Has Failed met with positive reviews in most major progressive rock magazines. Since then the band has released five studio albums, three live albums and two DVDs!
Their most recent release Wanted has been in my music rotation now for the last couple of weeks. I first 
came across RPWL a while back when I was reviewing the album Numb from Blind Ego. I discovered then that Blind Ego was a side project for Kalle Wallner the lead guitarist and the W in RPWL. The other letters stand for drummer Phil Paul Rissettio, bassist Chris Postl, and vocalist – keyboardist Yogi Lang. Of the fonding four members, only Wallner and Lang are still with the group. The other musicians on Wanted are Marc Turiaux /on drums, Markus Jehle, keyboard and piano and Werner Taus plays bass
Here is some background about the album from Amazon:
Germany’s outstanding art rock act RPWL was recently confronted with a rather difficult question: how do you follow up an epic and highly celebrated album as the Nietzsche-themed ‘Beyond Man And Time’? Here’s the answer: you tackle the really, really huge topic on your new record ‘Wanted’ – the ultimate liberation of the spirit.
But… How does an idea like that spring to the minds of an art rock band in the first place?
RPWL tell of the hero of two worlds, Giuseppe Garibaldi – who, being a tremendous admirer of the Greek antiquity, became aware of a scroll of Plato’s in which he analyzes the work of Hippocrates. It can be read in Garibaldi s diaries that Hippocrates had in fact found the formula for a medicine that leads the spirit into a real and absolute world, free of all illusion and invisible ghost worlds. The question, however, that inevitably arises at that point is the following: is the human race ready for what Plato called the gift of absolute freedom ?
Now I don’t know if I understand the whole story on the album (I probably would understand a lot more if I had access to the lyrics) but I what I do know is that I like almost every track on the album and the list of favorite tracks gets longer with each listen. At first it was “Swords and Guns” and soon “Misguided Thought” became a favorite, then “Hide and Seek” and “Disbelief”. Oh, add the bonus track “Still Asleep” that’s playing in my ears right now and the 11 minute “The Attack” – oh I give up they’re all great!!! Let’s just say that the guitar of Wallner and the vocals a and keys of Lang are both excellent. And while several of the songs have a Pink Floyd vibe, the whole album stands on its own as another RPWL album!!
So Check Them Out at:
Links
RPWL website
ProgArchives
Amazon
Facebook
Reverbnation
YouTube\
Here’s the Official Video for the track “Swords and Guns” from Wanted…
