THE SILENT CORNER AND THE EMPTY STAGE

I am a huge fan of VdGG so I decided to check Peter Hammill's solo records too. I usually don't check band artists solo albums, because they are almost always sub-par to band efforts. But since the wholo band actually is present on the album, I gave it a try. I was (very) pleasantly surprised!

The first three tracks have almost no instruments except for Peter's acoustic guitar. The songs are just epic. Peter Hammill whispers, he screams, he soars, he growls. The emotion and dynamics are out of this world. The last track, A Louse Is Not a Home and Redshift are probably my favorite tracks. Not to say there is a bad track on the album, they are all excellent.

The lyrics are of course coming from Peter Hammill are dark in nature, poetic and just top- notch.

This should have been a VdGG album. I don't know why Peter decided to disband VdGG, and then record solo albums with exactly the same lineup. This album would get much more attention and would have been just better known had it bore the VdGG name. Oh, well...

Recommended for fans of VdGG and generally fans of excellent, vocal-driven prog. If Peter Hammill isn't the most versatile, enduring and excellent vocalist alive, I don't know who is...