SOLITARY WITNESS

This is one of the biggest dissapointments I've ever faced in my prog experience.Having realized that LANDMARQ are considered one of the better neo-prog bands ever and maybe in the top-5 of the 90's neo prog bands,I just wanted desperetaly to check out some of their works.The first I tried was their debut ''Solitary witness'' from 1992.Being already familiar with THRESHOLD,it was easy for me what to expect exactly from Damien Wilson,at least a decent performance behind the microphone.But there are a lot of crimes going on here... Firstly the band tends very much in the commercial sound of neo that to the progressive one.Ok, accesibility is a good thing but not in such range.That fact alone adds a negative point to the band.In most of the songs the band tries to sound more proggy,unfortunately the melodies are forgettable or uninspired...Secondly it's the flat almost amateur sound of the instruments,especially of keyboards and piano or some wind instruments...Don't know exactly what's going on,but to my ears it's like this band has used the most cheap stuff in the market...Too flat noises...And last but not least I personally consider it a crime to have such a great vocalist in the band and not to exploit his vocal skills...The man try to sounds cheesy almost AOR-ish in a lot of songs due to their pop leanings and it's not a coincidence that the best tracks of the album are those,where he explodes his voice in dramatic performance like in ''Tippi Hedren'' (great track) and ''Terraccota army''.It's really a pitty to listen to such a bastardy of a voice.

Of course a couple of tracks can't save this effort and provent me from reccomending this album...For trully innovating inspired neo prog,try COLLAGE,MARILLION,ARRAKEEN,IQ or somewhere else...This is good only for collectors or starters in neo prog...After all these years listening to neo prog,this album doesn't grab me at all...2.5 stars.