BRIDGE TO THE PROMISED LAND

This is an EP compilation of demo songs released by their recording label in 2000. Although the sound quality is obviously not as well recorded and produced as those which made it to the official CDs, they are still very good. And included here are 3 unreleased cuts: Corrugated Road, Running On Empty and Suicide. All of them worth to get.

Definitely this is not for starters, but if you´re a fan of Flamborough Head Mk I you´ll probably like it. An extra half star for the 3 new songs. Rating: 2,5 stars, that I will round up to 3 because of the high quality of the band..

This « Flamborough Head » line-up is really pleasant.

This album opens on a great and emotional piece of music. "Corrugated Road" is one of my fave of the band. Vocals are very catchy and enjoyable. They convey a very optimistic feeling.

And if ever melody and passion belong to your genuine senses, a song as "Childscream" could only overwhelm you. Straight-forward neo-prog melody. So nice, so human, so . beautiful, yet so simple. A highlight and another great musical experience. My only problem (as half of the songs of this recording) is that it has already been released in a more polished version.

Not all tracks will be on par, unfortunately. The long "Suicide" starts as an electro-pop worthless experience and really does never kick off. Even if the closing section holds some strong guitar work. But it lasts for almost nine minutes.(the song, not the great guitar break).

The recording quality of "Unspoken Whisper" is not super. What's the fuss of releasing an inferior and almost bootleg version of a good original ? I don't know. But "Flamborough Head" did it. Not me. The original song was much better.

The closing number was also released earlier on. "Bridge to the Promised Land" is featured here in a primary and shorter version. Not bad but at the end of the day this work sounds more as a rip off. Half of good new songs and half to average old remixed ones.

Two stars.

I was actually confused by the line up of songs for this demo/album. It appears it's the list of songs from their previous album so that explains. Anyway I appear to have one of the 500 copies by Cyclops, that's always nice although nowadays people have lots of ways to copy and distribute music so what's it worth ?

Three of the songs on this 6 song demo have already been released on the first two albums and those are Childscream, Unspoken whisper and Bridge to the promised land. The other three appear to be demotracks from around 1994 and then we are talking about Corrugated road, Running on empty and Suicide which is my favourite track of the 6 by the way despite the sinister title.

In fact I don't have to much to say about this album because the tracks are not easy to discuss and define. If I take my usual reviewing marks (vocals, instrumental aspect and compositions) I'd say the vocals are not my favourite (fortunately Margriet Boomsma is the lead singer since this century), the instrumental handling is a lot better and the compositions are good but not mindblowing. The only other important aspect is resemblances to other progbands and only Final Conflict and Saga (Unspoken Whisper !) come to mind but that's only slight resemblance. So instead reviewing it thoroughly myself I will tell something about the background of this release. In the booklet I read this material is from 1994 (like I said) and it got them going apparently because it also says Cyclops discovered them thanks to the demo and offered them a contract. They admit themselves that the sound quality is mediocre (true) but that was because it was not meant to be released in the first place. It was 6 or 7 years later that they decided to do that anyway. Nevertheless they got great response out of it and were even awarded in 1998 as best new band (CRS) after the release of their first real album but indirectly it was all thanks to this demo so that proves the value of first careful steps in music. Flamborough Head were even invited abroad to do gigs it appears so that must have been very satisfying. To conclude it was after their second successful album they decided together with cyclops to release an album of the demo because of increasing demands for it. (I recognize this, if you like a band a lot you always want to know how they actually started and if there was already something there before the first real album).

I have no other albums of Flamborough Head (yet), the only other track I know was the one of Cyclops sampler no.5 (Limestone Rock) and I really like that one so I will check out more. This one is their real beginning, an album with ups and downs, not bad at all but also not groundbreaking either.

After the performance at Progfarm 2000 there was a constant demand for the release of Flamborough Head's early recordings, so the members of the band decided to give the 94' demo as a hidden pearl to the fans.It was a limited 500-numbered release, again mastered for Cyclops, which eventually saw the light in 2001.

The original recordings took part in 1994 at the band's rehearsal studio in Bakkeveen and this release contains three known tracks in a demo version as well as three unreleased compositions.''Childscream'', ''Unspoken whisper'' and ''Bridge to the promised land'' were all part of Flamborough Head's first two studio albums, here they are presented in their earlier forms, keeping the basic structure, while the style, for those not aware of the band, is melodic and emotional Neo/Symphonic Progressive Rock with soft guitars, sensitive vocals and plenty of keyboard drives.To the unreleased ones, ''Corrugated Road'' is a very good piece of low-tempo Symphonic Rock with strong PINK FLOYD influences, highlighted by the great vocal lines and its overall emotional atmosphere.''Running On Empty'' follows a more typical Neo Prog vein with crystalline vocals, emotional guitars and catchy keyboards parts, while the long ''Suicide'' starts in a very smooth way built around synths and guitars and later follows a Neo Prog-ish path based on vocals until the quite charming ending guitar solo of Andre Cents.

A very good document of Flamborough Head's starting point, likely to please all fans of the band and the style.Considering this is a rare CD due to the limited copies distributed, I would not call it an essential purchase but if you ever come across a copy grab it without hesitation.