VIOLET DISTRICT

And there are two unreleased (and long) songs which are really worth. Capilary Action (strange title) is very close to Pendragon. Great guitar, aerial keys and a bombastic finale. One of the (two) best songs from the band. Maybe not as emotional as Nick Barrett can be but still, this song is excellent and should please lots of fans from the neo-symphonic-prog genre; if I may use this term to describe their music.

The second unreleased song is the longest one available (almost thirteen minutes of which the two last ones are an encore clapping). This time, Principles Of Alternation is more Marillion oriented (especially with the guitar work sounding so much to the Rothery one). But there is an undeniable Pendragon flavour as well.

This song is still less polished than Capilary.. The different parts don't flow too well into each other but the whole is rather enjoyable.

The third last piece is here is dedicated to their best studio song. Down & Away. I'm just a bit disillusioned by this rendition. The studio track sounded better to my ears, but still the guitar moments here are such a marvellous gift from Karmheinz Wallner.

The original album was just average but I have to say that the addition of this live set, is rather enhancing the offering (even the poor Hommage To The Irretrievably Lost has been revisited rather well in this live version).

I have made a detailed review of the studio work in the appropriate entry. Feel free to have a look if you are ever willing to get some hints about it.

Three stars for this remastered and expanded version.

Same Floydian influences (Gilmour era), nice vocal melodies and strong instrumental parts are a pleasant combination and should ensure an enjoyable listening to some neo-prog lovers.

On the other hand, there are not too many songs to write home about. The band tries to combine spacey mood with pure neo-prog sounds (Assurance) and Karlheinz is performing some very good guitar breaks (like he will use to do in RPWL as well) but these are too scarce to make this offering a good album.

Some tracks above the general level ? Anguishes Of A Scoundrel with its fully Wright oriented keyboards and the short and melodic Together We Fall.

The worst one? No doubt : Hommage To The Irretrievably Lost. It should have remained lost.

There is one highlight on this album. The long (over twelve minutes) and closing number Down & Away. Fully Floydian and bombastic, it also features the best guitar work of this album. A very good song by all means.

My rating is five out of ten, but raising it to three stars would be exaggerated.

The opening track, "Lustreless Fright" proves to be a good track with slow to medium tempo music in ambient nuance. Keyboard and guitar play important roles to provide the style of music. The music also combines the elements of space psychedelic which remind me strongly to Pink Floyd. After a short bridge of "Ego" the band continues its journey with fourth track "Hommage to The Irretrievably lost" which maintains the previous segment style. The music seems to flow naturally from one to another with good guitar solo mixed thinly throughout the song. The key to this album is the way guitar and keyboard combine the sounds together and produce floating music style with good guitar work.

"Assurance" explores the virtuosity of Karlheinz Wallner in playing the acoustic guitar work. The vocal enters the music smoothly and the beats are in medium tempo. The interlude showcases guitar solo backed with floating keyboard work. The next track shows faster tempo with much dynamic music but still maintaining the long sustain keyboard sounds. "Necessary Goodbyes" is a good and melodic track featuring the guitar fills and nice vocal work in mellow style.

Overall, this is a good album for those who love neo progressive music with some spacey music. The similarity of this album is close to Pendragon, Pallas, IQ and in fact some elements of Ozric Tentacles but in its simplest form. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

The opening track, "Lustreless Fright" proves to be a good track with slow to medium tempo music in ambient nuance. Keyboard and guitar play important roles to provide the style of music. The music also combines the elements of space psychedelic which remind me strongly to Pink Floyd. After a short bridge of "Ego" the band continues its journey with fourth track "Hommage to The Irretrievably lost" which maintains the previous segment style. The music seems to flow naturally from one to another with good guitar solo mixed thinly throughout the song. The key to this album is the way guitar and keyboard combine the sounds together and produce floating music style with good guitar work.

"Assurance" explores the virtuosity of Karlheinz Wallner in playing the acoustic guitar work. The vocal enters the music smoothly and the beats are in medium tempo. The interlude showcases guitar solo backed with floating keyboard work. The next track shows faster tempo with much dynamic music but still maintaining the long sustain keyboard sounds. "Necessary Goodbyes" is a good and melodic track featuring the guitar fills and nice vocal work in mellow style.

Overall, this is a good album for those who love neo progressive music with some spacey music. The similarity of this album is close to Pendragon, Pallas, IQ and in fact some elements of Ozric Tentacles but in its simplest form. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Forgetting the slight inflection in the voice, you could consider this band as a modern version of Kayak.

STRICTLY RECOMMANDED for fans of Marillion, Twelfth Night, IQ, Pendragon and Co. This album has the "magic touch" and a wonderful flow @ listining !!! No fillers , only killers.

The 2CD-remaster comes with a highly recommanded live concert on the 2nd CD containing 2 more brilliant tracks never released on a studio-album. "Capillary Action" and "Principles Of Alternation" are wonderful songs you won't miss !!! Normally studio-version are a MUST for the remastered version of "Terminal Breath" but unfortanetely they never find a way on the CD....what a pity !

For all fans: I found a 12:15 long studio-version of "Principles Of Alternation" on the CD "Progfever Vol. 1" see http://www.quixote-music.de/cds/progfever.htm for further details.

Finally, I was very sad about the group splitted up after this album. But some members rejoined to new group "RPWL" later, well worth to check out, even the style is not exactly the same anymore.

I give 5 stars for this - MUST HAVE - timeless essential master-piece.

Together We Fall, Anguishes Of A Scoundrel, Homage To The Irretrievably Lost and the epic closer Down And Away are among the better songs here but even they suffer from a poor choice of sounds, while a majority of cuts just remind me of bad 80s metal. Seriously there's one track here called The Age that's so much like lightweight 80s pop/rock, it's unbelievable.

I can't see why anybody would want to waste their time with these laughable fellows when there are so many better bands out there ... Europe and Bon Jovi for starters! Guitarist Karlheinz Wallner and bassist Chris Postl eventually resurfaced in RPWL, which is one reason people tend to investigate Violet District. I suggest they don't. Listening to this album I really felt like someone was trying to pull my leg ... except I never got the joke! ... 16% on the MPV scale

To put it into more 'mainstream' terms, the sound is roughly somewhere between "Power Windows" era-RUSH and "Momentary Lapse"-era PINK FLOYD. Sparse but textured verses trade time with heavier, metal-inflected choruses and instrumentals. The guitars switch from crisp effected arpeggios to smoothly distorted leads- all familiar territory to anyone who turned on their radio in the late 80's. The synths are typically of the digital variety, alternating between washes of bright string sounds and tinkling FM bell tones and effects, but the occasional sweeping analogue does appear from time to time. Mischa doesn't have a wide stylistic range, but his vocals are clear, solid, undeniably Teutonic (though delivering lyrics in English doesn't seem to be a problem), and sometimes surprisingly expressive. More 80's legacies include a bass which has a very plastic, almost synthetic tone (but is nevertheless well-played), and precise drums wrapped in digital reverb (less impressively played, but still more than competent). The performances are tight and each musician contributes to the whole, always focused on the song rather than showcasing their respective skills. Honestly, the real stars of the show are the subtle but ever-present details; there's frequently several little things going on, often in the way of synth effects and 'found sounds', that really give space and color to the mix without ever overdoing it.

The songs are well-structured and full of movement. The album goes by surprisingly quick but unfortunately leaves little impression on me afterwards- I had to give "Terminal Breath" a few listens before I could really distinguish passages of one song from another. "The Age" is perhaps the most immediately distinctive track; it's a great example of Neo- Prog's attempt to have the progressive rock mentality meet mainstream accesibility halfway. While it doesn't have the heart of MARILLION or the drama of IQ, I can see most fans of Neo- Prog really warming to VIOLET DISTRICT. Ultimately, the album sounds just fine to me, but I'm positive that others will be able to appreciate it much more.

One might say VIOLET DISTRICT makes itself right at home in prog, rather than charting any truly interesting new territory. The music flows with thick distorted lead guitar and tinkling synths and is more than capable of sweeping the listener away. The vocals can be somewhat distracting in the midst of the generally effective instrumental atmospherics, but are typically competent and appropriate- especially if you like German heavy rock singers. Think of a less anthemic COLLAGE, and you'll be spot on (okay, they're Polish, but the resemblance is still quite striking to me).

I can't find it in myself to either praise this album highly nor criticize it much (a near-perfect example of a 3 star score). It's not really my kind of prog, nor will it appeal to the jazz or virtuoso fetishists (let alone the harcore classic prog fans), but I can see the MARILLION/ PALLAS segment easily warming to its virtues, and the prog-metal crowd may even be able to enjoy it during a more relaxed mood. There's a slightly synthetic crystal-clear quality, instantly recognizable to anyone who lived through the 80s- somewhere between the more adventurous hard rock and the better pop (U2 and THE POLICE are obvious references). Whether this sound is an immediate turn-off or not will pretty much determine your willingness to appreciate what "Terminal Breath" actually has to offer.

Thanks to PROGARCHIVES I got knowledge of this interesting German band (that comes actually very close from my home town).Their one and only album is in fact quite uncommon for the NeoProg genre where most of the outputs are rather mediocre I've got to say. I have all albums by their successor band RPWL in my collection that I like very much as well. But VIOLET DISTRICT actually cannot be compared that much to RPWL since they sounded much more independently and didn't "carry their influences on the sleeve". The original material on here is recorded already in 1992, but nonetheless it doesn't sound dated at all, I'd even say it sounds better than many more recent album from this sub-genre.

The first three songs are linked to each other and obviously part of a concept. The most striking and fascinating features on this album are the awesome guitar work and the excellent vocals, especially the latter one happening not too often with German bands. The keyboard tunes are sounding nice, not too much squeezy and are applied in a decent manner to supplement the guitars without dominating. At times one gets reminded to Fish-era Marillion, but it never comes close to a mere rip-off. Hommage To The Irretrievably Lost is as well linked to the first three songs by a sample of ambient noise and like those ones a very intricate and excellent song. Assurance starts off with quiet acoustic guitar which accompanies a very nice vocal line then it changes to piano combined with electronic tunes. Here their Floyd-ian influence becomes a bit more evident. Together We Fall is a really excellent all instrumental song with great melodies. Necessary Goodbyes and The Age which are just seperated by the short instrumental introductory Age Theme are very and possibly too catchy ones. Not bad at all but especially the second one possesses a rather potential for a single hit. It segues without any break into the final long track Down And Away which is again a very good and versatile epic song with excellent guitar.

Apart of one or two slightly weaker songs this album is throughout a really excellent one in Neoprog and I'd even recommend to non-fans of this subgenre (including myself) to give it a spin. Although I think it's pretty close to be a masterpiece, I'd rather reduce my previous rating which was admittedly done in a rather enthusiastic mood to 4 (actually 4.5) stars.