SUNSETS ON EMPIRE

On the previous studio album Fish tried to spread his musical wings but failed. There was so much diversity that the point got lost. A lot of his following got disappointed and fans of progressive rock lost interest in the former Marillion front man. "Sunsets on empire" is an unexpected return to form although this sounds rather different when compared to earlier efforts. There's still lots of different musical influences but it's nicely integrated in the progressive rock style. Proof of that is the sound of the bonus track on the reissue. "Do not walk outside this area" has some exotic rhythms which may sound weird but as a addition to an atmospheric track with a strong chorus, it just works. In fact I think it has become one of the highlights. Porcupine Tree's Steve Wilson is the guy who is responsible for the nineties progressive sound and he did an excellent job. When you take a look at the song credits and you listen to the excellent guitar playing throughout most of the album you'll notice he was responsible for a lot more than that. Therefore fans of Porcupine Tree should definitely check this one out. From the opening track it is clear that this album has a rough edge, The music puts the rock in progressive rock and there's some pretty aggressive vocals. Although his voice is in rather good shape when compared to the live performances, it is clear his voice lost some of its power since his Marillion days. There's some excellent songwriting on this album( "Goldfish& clowns", "what colour is god", "brother 52"). The real highlights are "The perception of Johnny Punter" and the title track. These tracks have great melodies and an awesome wall of sound with different layers of guitars, keyboards and female background voices. Unfortunately the album also holds some boring stuff ("Say it with flowers", "Tara"). Overall excellent album with pretty strong lyrics as well but Marillion seems long gone and forgotten.