Flamborough Head

'Defining the legacy'

Dutch outfit Flamborough Head first surfaced two years ago with their acclaimed 'Unspoken Whispers' album released, as with this latest opus, on Cyclops Records. Unashamedly neo-progressive 'Whispers' was a very good album blending the best of Pendragon with a much more harder edge and some excellent symphonic themes.

'Defining the legacy' sees the band really flexing their muscular musical repertoire adding much complexity to their original pallet. Unfortunately the results are extremely unrewarding.

The opener and title track begins the album with huge promise. A gentle piano introduction leading into an atmospheric and well-structured song filled with clever instrumental interplay and a truly memorable concluding section. As ever the guitar work of Andre Cents is excellent.

'House of Cards' is extremely disappointing plagued by the mid-tempo plod that has given neo-prog such a bad name. The over use of thickly layered and dull washes of keyboard coupled with unimaginative chord progression is sickly on the ear. The drum lines are functional at best and do little to rouse the track from its directionless 9-minute journey. Siebe-Rein Schaff's vocals, which at times are extremely effective, simply grate against the endless wall of block sound.

'Garden of Dreams' starts brightly with some choppy keyboard lines and strong guitar riffs leading into a Kellyesque moog line. Unfortunately the pace is taken right down and we find ourselves in the wimpier side of Pendragon country suddenly eying the fast forward button with grim attention. The song then reverts into more thick slabs of slow-paced atmospheres and at times the musicianship sounds less than accomplished. In fact it has to be said that the bass and drum work is painfully laboured and does little to raise the band out of their sonic rut. Total disgrace is averted by a darkly laced guitar and organ led last 5 minutes, with more than a hint of Fish era Marillion thrown in for good measure.

'Assassin', although not being a near match for the mind blowing Marillion track of the same name, is a stronger effort, more due it actually having both an identifiable structure and containing some subtle and effective synth work. Against this calmer and more emotive backdrop Schaff's vocals take on a more pleasing guise. Some good piano and guitar lines also feature making up for some of the more cumbersome neo-prog widdlings which emerge mid song. A pithy Roger Waters like ending also works well leading into an excellent guitar break.

'Impulse' is simply horrible. Unstructured, slow paced and meandering it relies on some truly elevator keyboard lines before breaking into an almost prog-metal led section which is just too poorly delivered and nasty to comprehend.

The strongest song on the album (and by a country mile) is the exquisite and subtly constructed ballad 'Bridge to The Promised Land' Some delightful orchestral arrangement is augmented by a cohesive and building main theme that flourishes into a guitar solo of goose bump proportions. How a song this good got onto an album this poor is difficult to understand.

Album closer, the instrumental, 'Mind Sculpture' is also a good track, well structured and varied enough to keep the listener interested although by no means hooked.

'Defining the Legacy' as an album is disappointing in the extreme. For whatever reason Flamborough Head have chosen to abandon the strong sense of melody which made 'Whispers' so pleasing to its fans and disappear into a world of directionless and ill conceived songs which will not last long in the memory.

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Gareth Long January 2001