CHAMELEON IN THE SHADOW OF THE NIGHT

This Record is Peter second solo release but it is his first release as a solo Artists and so in many ways it marked a debut of sorts. Slender Threads ,In the End ,What's It Worth Easy to Slip Away and Dropping the Torch are all certainly Hammil solo efforts and have a pretty minimal instrumentation on them. Deeply personal songs, which you will either love or not get. German Overalls, Rock and Rôle and (In the) Black Room/Tower are a very different story. These three tracks could be described quite truthfully as VDGG music and make this record a must buy for all Van der Fans. German overalls sounds very vdgg even though the instrumentation is just hammill, he recalls that it started life intended for the band. The new Cd makes the Guitar on this track a little hard on the ears but it is still a masterful piece of Prog. Rock and Role is a excellent tune with strange off beat sound, he would repeat this style a few more times on later records but this is a good example of a PH/VDGG rocker as you will find. The real Meal comes with the final cut the Black room is awesome easily on a par with the very best of VDGG's work and has the full band firing on all cannons. A true tour de force Black room alone would be worth the purchase price the rest of the Lp is also excellent but may take a number of plays to truly enjoy. This is a very fine record and is only let down a little by its rather odd mix. The extras are OK but nothing really special. The CD release was a disappointment so its really good to hear the new re- issue which is a vast improvement. This CD actually sounds better than the Vinyl.