THE VISION PIT

This is the third album from LANDMARQ. The original release of "The Vision Pit" was through SI Music/Roadrunner (SI3073-2), but it was re-issued on LANDMARQ's own label Synergy in 1997, with the same tracks as on the SI Music/Roadrunner release. Damian Wilson, also known from the Prog Metal act THRESHOLD handles the vocals. Damian has got a voice that is very hard to get used to. I really like his vocals on THRESHOLD's album "Wounded Land" from 1993. His voice suites better in that kind of music than in LANDMARQ's. LANDMARQ is playing symphonic rock that is much in the same vein as PENDRAGON, and LANDMARQ is one of the premier bands in this genre from UK. Unfortunately this release doesn't really live up to the same standard as we are used to with other releases that this musicians have been participating in. The main reason lies in the son qualities. There aren't enough of good, memorable tracks to fill up a whole CD. The best tracks though are very good, such as "Cutting Room", "Narovlya" and "Hanblechia". In the CD booklet you can read the following about the track "Narovlya": "This song was inspired by the letter of a kindergarten teacher, Valentina Klimchenko, who was a witness to the devastation of the people of her home town, Narovlya, in Belarus after the terrible catastrophe of the Chernobyl nuclear accident (on the borders of the Ukraine and Belarus) on 26th April 1986". This track makes you think about the damage that we're doing on our planet Earth, and fills you with anger of how the governments are handling catastrophe situations, with inadequate, wrong or no information at all. This track is a masterpiece that almost makes the album as a whole worth having. This is not a bad album, but it leaves a lot to wish for. "Narovlya" though is almost justifying you to buy this CD.

Uughh ... what is this? Beware of purchasing this stuff. If you wanna know my experience, read this carefully: First time I got this CD (it was 1998, I think) and put in my player, I could not stand listening to the first three tracks. So when it hit 4th track, I skimmed only for the rest of the tracks. Not single track really hit me. So put the CD in my shelf. Couple of months later I tried to listen to it. Oh No .. I still could not bear with it. If this is categorized as neo prog, this is not the kind of neo prog that I want. Yes, I like IQ, Marillion, Arena, Pallas .. but definitely not this album. Forgive me Damian Wilson (I happened to meet him when he took a vocal part during Rick Wakeman concert in my country, February 2002). But I have to be fair to my self that .. I DO NOT enjoy this album at all! The songwriting, composition and melody are not there. That's why I put 2 star just to accommodate the star for fans only. Tey may like it.

This would be the last LANDMARQ record that Damian Wilson would sing on, as he would go on to join THRESHOLD. This record was produced and engineered by Clive Nolan and mixed by Karl Groom.

Things get started with "Cutting Room" an uptempo tune with Damian's strong vocals. "Pinewood Avenue" is a light, catchy song with the focus on the drums and keys. I like it. "Infinity Parade" opens with a nice piano melody, and the sound builds, great vocals too. "Came Over" is a light breezy tune with some orchestration and lots of keys. "All Performers Stand Alone","Ten Million And One" and "Bed Of Nails" are all ok, nothing to write home about though.

"Narovlya" is an 11 minute song about the nucleur accident at Chernobl. The lyrics were taken directly from a letter written by a kindergarden teacher at a nearby town. Her words were translated and made into this song. She describes in detail how it impacted the people, landscape and life of her and her people and of course the children.This song alone is worth the purchase of this record.The other really good song is "Hanblechia (the vision quest)". The song is taken from the Sioiux natives and opens with organ that is joined by a guitar melody as the organ continues. This is an instrumental with vocal melodies that create a beautiful soundscape. The singers are Damian, Tracy Hitchings and Clive Nolan. Some good guitar in this one as well.

Of the first three LANDMARQ records the first one "Solitary Witness" is the best, of the last two it's a toss up.

Landmark's third album is quite average. It is their last recording to feature the great Damian Wilson on vocals. But even him is rather "short" on this album. The first couple of songs are just a bunch of a parody IMO.

Nothing to be remembered actually. I was quite positive about their debut, but I have to say that the quality of their works seriously dropped after this. There are hardly one great song featured on this album. It sounds as a very average neo-prog and common stuff. "Game Over" is the most illustrious phenomenon out here even if there is some fine guitar during the last minute. The first time so far?

I really wonder if "All Performers Stand Alone" is some kind of a joke or if the band truly meant to release such a cr*p. What a pity!!! Fortunately, there is hope with the short epic "Narovlya". Thanks to a brilliant vocal part from the excellent Damian, this track stands out by a mile here. Even if the closing part is a "Watcher Of Skies" rip off. It is a pity that this great singer left the band after this album.

There are a lot of average tracks featured on this album to consider it as a good effort. The inspiration seems all gone, the great leading vocals are rather dimmed and great guitar moments are too scarce to be described.

In all, this album is quite a deception as far as I'm concerned. Very few positive elements to catch form here. Two stars.

Game Over

The Vision Pit was the third and final Landmarq album to feature Damian Wilson on lead vocals. Wilson was replaced by Tracy Hitchings for the band's next album Science Of Coincidence, and this naturally changed the nature of the Landmarq sound. But the present album, on the other hand, retained the exact same line up of Dave Wagstaffe on drums, Uwe D'Rose on guitars, Steve Gee on bass and Steve Leigh on keyboards, and plays like a continuation of the previous Infinity Parade album. In terms of quality too, The Vision Pit is very similar to Infinity Parade, which means another good album. It is not up to par with their excellent debut album, Solitary Witness, which remains my favourite Landmarq album, but it is definitely worth hearing by those who enjoyed the band's two first albums.

This album continues the band's interesting tradition of including a track named after their previous album. Just as the Infinity Parade album included a track called Solitary Witness after the name of the band's debut album, The Vision Pit includes a track called Infinity Parade. The subsequent Science Of Coincidence album would go on to include a track called The Vision Pit. Since Science Of Coincidence already includes a title track, this tradition will not continue on the band's upcoming fifth album (to be called Entertaining Angels).

These are definitely talented musicians and the material is generally strong. It will probably not take anyone by storm, but I enjoy this music and I'm sure that it would appeal to fans of bands like Arena and other bands from the darker and harder-edged side of Neo- Prog. Personally, I prefer this over the Tracy Hitchings-fronted follow up.

Recommended for anyone who already owns and likes Solitary Witness and Infinity Parade.

Thir album by this discret band with moderate succes in the '90's, Vision pit released in 1995 and issued by same SI music who will colapsses a year or so later, but definetly a great label that issued some great albums and bands across the years from the year they formed in 1987 untill 1997. So, Landmarq third album is little not so excellent then predecesor and aswell the last album featuring the unique voice of Damian Wilson, later on he wil join Threshold on Extinct Instinct from 1997 and he is now a permanent member in Threshold since 2007. Compose and played is same manner with Infinity parade but less intrsting in arrangenets, but still having some great moments like opening track the up tempo and powerful Cutting room, Narovlya with some moving lyrics, far as I know are about the nuclear desaster that was made in 1986 in Cernobl, btw the lyrics are in fact the the letter that one of the teacher from a kindergarden wrote on how this desaster had the impact on peoples life, specialy childrens, is transladed word by word in english from russian and is damn moving song. Another worthy track is Hanblechia (the Vision Quest), practlicaly to me no weak moments here, but the overall arrangements are little less intrsting then on previous albums, but still pleasent for sure. One of the neo prog bands that still are active today, they are for more then 20 years in the shadow of the other more well nown bands from neo zone. It's a pitty that they didn't hit big time yet after so many years. 3.5 stars and no way to be a bad album as other mentioning, really is to low rated.

I decided to write few words The Vision Pit in a defense of this underrated record. Despite the low reception I consider this album certainly as a band's finest achievement, having all positive trademarks of previous albums. I see it as one of key neo-prog albums in 90s. The Vision Pit is darker and I would say slightly more sophisticated, memorable and consistent than previous two, and is probably harder to get into.

Compositionally it goes more adventurous path and for some reason it has quite strong impact on me. Great for purgatorial journey through the coldness, broodiness and despair, it nicely elevates the emotions. Its atmosphere includes variety of moods, from uplifting, to sad and mournful, from furious to dreamy, evil and grotesque. Synthesizers' patterns are wisely chosen (although some of them may sound a bit 'outdated' today) to intertwine with the sharp chorus lead guitar and interesting rhythm structures, melodic basslines. There is no exhibition, instruments complement each other.

Above all, Damian Wilson shows his distinctively impressive voice at his finest. Soulful melancholy and vocal acrobatics give the music unique face along with the instrumentation. Ideas and chord progressions are inventive, but still melodic. Dynamic shifts are done very well, so it holds my attention over the entire album. I really like every single song on it, despite the first side being slightly stronger.

I'd say it is a fine prog album even in 'objective terms' (odd tepmos, mood shifts...), but also it has kind of extra magic and certain chemistry which moves it into quite special place in my music collection. Especially if you are fan of rich and melodic neo-prog moments, from the bands like Arena, IQ, Credo, Pendragon or projects involving Damian Wilson - give it a chance! You might be pleasantly surprised. Good 4 stars.

First clouds within the Landmarq family appeared in 1993.Damian Wilson was proposed the position of singer for the Luxembourg-based act La Salle and left the band, who replaced him with Ian Gould after several auditions.Gould spent a year with Landmarq, participating in numerous live shows with his powerful voice, but he also quit in 1995 because of musical differences and went on to join Medicine Man.In the meantime the collaboration between Wilson and La Salle did not go well and he rejoined Landmarq for the recordings of the third studio album ''The vision pit''.The album was recorded at the Thin Ice Studios in Maidenhead in the early summer of 95' with Clive Nolan helping Landmarq in orchestrations, while additional engineering and mixing was served by Karl Groom.''The vision pit'', released in 1995, was the last album of the band for the SI label.

Too many things went on between the previous and the new album, but the inspiration was still there for a group that slowly became a stable value of the Neo Prog scene, producing bombastic and sharp Progressive Rock with grandiose orchestrations, angular guitar riffs and of course monumental vocals by Damian Wilson.While the music is once more accesible, heavy and quite melodic, this is another case of a Landmarq album that requires time to be appreciated.Energetic music with excellent guitar solos, great breaks between mascular grooves and lyrical material, poetic lyrics and edgy synthesizers, often with a symphonic edge.The songwriting is pretty great with memorable melodies, impressive choruses and a variety of atmospheres, including lots of 80's-styled Prog keyboard stylings, straightforward rockin' moments and some decent room for pompous instrumental work.Neo Prog legends ARENA must have listened to Landmarq tons of times, as the style is pretty similar.Powerful piano lines, orchestral overtones with the sign of Clive Nolan and Heavy Rock pounds are also in the menu, combined perfectly in the longer tracks of the album like the excellent ''Infinity parade'' or the punchy ''Bed of nails''.

At this point Landmarq seemed like a group ready to rule the Prog world.While their music was not the most original around, the solid and consistent songwriting along with amounts of energy included in their third album were enough to satisfy the prog fans.Highly recommended...3.5 stars.