The 7 Samurai: The Ultimate Epic

I want everyone to know that Anarchon brought this on you all by declaring this concept album month. While I'm not sure I can, in good conscience, provide a months worth of concept albums, I can provide one so obscure, so ridiculous, and so pretentious, that it may kill the movement in its tracks; after all, isn't it the point of concept albums to be all of the above, and more so than others? In other words, I dare you to top this:

The 7 Samurai:The Ultimate Epic.

This, for the curious, is actually three prog epics, by three obscure prog bands, each one representing a 3rd of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece The 7 Samurai. The album is (officially) divided into a ridiculous number of pieces which will now be listed for the humor value, and for entry fluff:

1.)"Alla Corte Degli Eroi (1550, Periodo Sengoku)" - By: CONSORZIO ACQUA POTABILE(aka: Cap)

1. Shimada Kambei
2. Kikuchiyo: Il Volo
3. Crepusculo - Parte Uno
4. Il Vecchio Mulino
5. Katayama Gorobei: Le Sete Spade
6. Fa Che Io Sia: Il Dono

2.) "The Farmers" - By: Tempano

1. Farewell To The Season
2. The Lone Samurai
3. Despair, Shout!
4. The Blind Crow

3.) "The Bandits" - By: Taproban

1. First Ride
2. Eagle's Peak Pyre
3. The Flaming Lady
4. Last Ride

So there it is. A huge, absurd prog epic, concept compilation album. To further drag this into absurdity I'll just point out that the bands are Italian (Cap, Taproban) and Venezuelan (Tempano).

As for the music itself, I'll say that at first I found it unremarkable, but after a couple listens I decided it was remarkable in that it is probably the purest contemporary example of 70's prog music. None of the three really stand out as better than the others in my opinion, but that said I'll list my highlights in this order:

3.) "Alla Corte Degli Eroi (1550, Periodo Sengoku)"
2.) "The Bandits"
1.) "The Farmers"

That is based on very little. As you may have noticed I don't have a whole lot of substance to say about this album, that is beacuase (while I do honestly enjoy it) I wasn't planning on posting it here. This is merely to one up the Anarchon. So then my friend, and anyone else brave enough to challenge me here: Bring it on.