CITIZEN CAIN

Citizen Cain was always a very dark-sounding band and ''Ghost dance'' is the greatest proof.Although the sound of the band has always been linked with MARILLION and GENESIS, Citizen Cain did have their own style and presented much more haunting atmospheres than the aforementioned bands.Some of the guitar breaks even recalls KING CRIMSON, while plenty of the grooves have a strong RUSH vibe.Sure thing they do not sounded like the mass of Neo Prog bands of early- to mid-80's except of Cyrus' voice, who was another PETER GABRIEL copycat, alas a very good one.The compositions are characterized by the very powerful and deep bass lines of Cyrus along with Feenie's solid drumming and the diverse and sharp guitar work of Taylor.Working as a trio prevented Citizen Cain to have the richest of styles back at the time, so keyboard and flute parts are sparse.However ''Ghost dance'' presents a group full of energy, high dynamics and passion for producing top-gear Progressive Rock with rapid changes and shifting moods.

A nice archival/documental release by Citizen Cain, although I can see many fans of the band prefering their 90's period, when their sound was richer and less raw.Still this one comes recommended, especially for all lovers of the early-80's rough British Prog stylings.

When the disc arrived I opened the booklet to see who was involved, and could see just three names ? Cyrus, Stewart and Phil Allen. Annoyingly for me there are no details about who played what, and who (if any) were the additional musicians involved. The Citizen Cain website is still under construction, and the Festival Music site just lists releases so neither are helpful in this regard. I did find a few details on one site where it states that Stewart provided drums as well as keys, Cyrus provided bass (as he did in the early days of the band) and vocals and Phil provided guitars. There is a very simple reason as to why this bothers me, as we need to give credit where credit is due as this is an absolutely stunning piece of work. To put it bluntly, this is one of the finest prog albums you are ever likely to hear.

Put it in the player and immediately the listener is taken aback by the complexity and interplay of the introduction to "The Charnal House". The maelstrom of notes and complicated inter-rhythms gives way to delicate piano and vocals, and one of the most Genesis-like passages of the whole album. Already the listener is deep inside the world of Citizen Cain, and with less than three minutes on the clock there has been musically a lot to digest. The interplay between the musicians, and particularly the way that the melodies and counterpoints are chased and are at times heavily structured and dense, contrast greatly with the simplicity of other phases of the music. And all of this within one song! Stewart's keyboards are a revelation, bringing together a multitude of sounds and styles, often layered, and he would need to be an octopus to be able to replicate this in a live environment.

By the time I got to the end of this album I felt that I had been taken on an incredible musical journey, one with a richness and passion to match anything I have heard in recent years. The only sane thing to do after listening to this is put it back on. The more I have played it the more I have fallen into the spell. So it took 10 years for this one, when's the next? 5/5 in anyone's language.

It has this theme running through it about how man has failed to learn from past mistakes and the skies are getting darker because of it. Soon it will catch up with humanity and the storm will break. There seems to be a lot of nursery rhyme references on this record as well.

"The Charnal House" is surprisingly heavy. Love the chunky bass, and vocals arrive a minute in. It's heavy again before 2 1/2 minutes as contrasts continue. It blends into "The Long Sleep" where we get some huge bass lines. A calm with piano before 3 minutes and reserved vocals join in. It kicks back in quickly. Again contrasts continue. Spoken words late. "Darkest Sleep / Manifestations" has this marching styled rhythm as the vocals join in. It's building. A calm before 2 minutes then it kicks back in a minute later. I like these powerful sections. "Spiders In Undergrowth" features lots of piano.

"The Hunting Of Johnny Eue / Trapped By Candlelight" has a good heavy sound 2 minutes in then the vocals arrive and it's not as heavy. These contrasts continue. An atmospheric calm 9 minutes in. Great sound of drums and synths when it kicks back in. "Coming Down / The Fountains Of Sand / Delivered Up For Tea / Death And Rebirth" has a powerful intro with chunky bass. A calm with reserved vocals before 1 1/2 minutes and the piano joins in. It continues to be laid back until before 6 minutes when we get a bombastic instrumental section that ends before 8 minutes. Impressive. Spoken words late. "Do We Walk In The World ?" opens with piano as the vocals join in. Bass and drums too. Lots of synths before 4 minutes. It's heavy late as it blends into "Lost In Lonely Ghosts". Vocals follow then we get a silent calm 3 minutes in then the reserved vocals return before it kicks back in.

A good album but i'll stick with their first two studio albums thankyou. 3 stars.

The album's centrepiece track is surely the lengthy "Coming Down / The Fountains Of Sand / Delivered Up For Tea / Death And Rebirth". This is one of those 'journey' songs where the listener is treated to different moods, tempos and approaches, all the while featuring memorable melodies that will please any prog lover - and this is the important ingredient so often missing from other releases of this genre. Although the previously mentioned "Johnny Eue" is a terrific and strong track, this one is certainly another that will give core CC fans what they really desire (they won't be let down by *any* of the tracks, actually).

Terrific writing and playing, a good sense of storytelling, instantly likeable melodies and delicious lyrics add up to a nice long album that you can really sink your teeth into - but it does not seem as long as it is. And that's a very, very good sign. It's refreshing to have an album of this epic scope where there are no 'skipper' tracks.

Only time will tell if Skies Darken will unseat Somewhere But Yesterday as the best Citizen Cain album, but at this early stage, to my ears, this is the best thing they've ever done. I've spun the disc about a dozen times in a very short space because it is just so good, and that's really saying something considering I constantly have a huge stack of cds to go through... the ones that simply aren't as good get shelved rather quickly. This is not one of those. This album is a winner. Well done, lads. Recommended!

In particular, lead vocalist Cyrus' vocal style is so close to Peter Gabriel's in his more flouncey and dramatic theatrical moments in Genesis that it just plain has to be a deliberate imitation - but Cyrus overplays Gabriels' vocal habits so much that it crosses the line into parody. Furthermore, for a lot of the album his vocal delivery isn't nearly as varied as Gabriel's - whereas Gabriel could adopt a sweet, gentle tone at times, Cyrus is locked into the "pretentious proclamation" voice more or less permanently with only a few digressions. The end result is that for the first few minutes of listening to a Citizen Cain album I am usually impressed by Cyrus' impersonation of Gabriel - but it isn't at all long before it begins to bug the hell out of me.

The musical backing isn't so hot either; keyboardist Stewart Bell seems to be reasonably talented but it sounds like he's cursed with rather cheap equipment which sounds cheesy and dated to my ears, whilst Frank Kennedy's guitar solos are reasonable enough - only he just doesn't stop soloing. Which brings me to the problem with Citizen Cain's compositional approach: they seem to construct songs by lashing the crescendos of Genesis songs together and showboat constantly, not realising that it the buildup to such crescendos was an absolutely vital part of the original compositions which can't be dispensed with lightly.

On the whole, Citizen Cain come across like major league Genesis fans who wanted to produce a neo-proggy update of their favourite band, but didn't quite understand how Genesis put their songs together and what influences shaped them, so they end up mimicing the most obvious and distinctive quirks of the Genesis style without any deeper appreciation or mastery of the underpinnings of the great ones' craft.

In other words, Citizen Cain is cargo cult Genesis.

Their sound remains grounded mostly in the GENESIS field along with some MARILLION- esque hints here and there.The tracks are much longer,ranging from 9 to 25 minutes (the eponymous one),being slightly more symphonic compared to their debut.The talent of the band however is again lost somewhere between the total lack of originality and the force for ambitious ideas.This is a complete GENESIS clone band with a singer sounding similar to PETER GABRIEL and Bell performing along the lines of TONY BANKS.Still their compositions contain a lot of interesting passages and even some really beautiful parts.Symphonic arrangements with plenty of pastoral flute work,sometimes with a folkish vibe,massive organ work,dreamy and flashy synths,Classical-inspired piano interludes but also a guitarist closer to the distorted style of STEVE ROTHERY than to this of STEVE HACKETT.Cyrus' performance remains at the same high level with a lot of theatrical twists on his singing,while the tracks have sometimes a dark mysterious atmosphere.The sound of the band remains rich, vintage and captivating with fairly complicated themes and a reasonable amount of complexity.

Not a big step forward,neither a step on the opposite way.''Somewhere but yesterday'' may seem a slightly more ambitious effort compared to Citizen Cain's debut,but the final result is the same.Great Neo/Symphonic Rock with a rich sound but very far from personal or unique.If you love GENESIS (like I do) and have no problem with total clones (I do have),you will love this album.If you are on the other side,just listen to some samples first to ensure Citizen Cain's sound is really interesting...3.5 stars.

I got this album by a mere chance when I was browsing a downtown record store, somewhere around 2001, and stumbled upon an album cover that I just couldn't ignore. This excellent album cover art belonged to Citized Cain's debut album Serpents In Camouflage and everything about it screamed progressive rock, a genre that I was only starting to uncover by that point in my life.

The album consists of six lengthy compositions ranging from 6 to 13 minutes in length. Listening to the album for the first time reminded me a whole lot of a band called Marillion, which I pretty much was discovering simultaneously with this new experience. Listening to the album today gives me more hints of the classic Gabriel-era Genesis with Cyrus clearly trying to sound like Peter Gabriel while Frank Kennedy's guitar reminds me of Steve Hackett but also a whole lot of Steve Rothery. Stewart Bell does a competent job with his keyboard arrangements and he's not really trying to sound like either Tony Banks nor Mark Kelly but does come off sounding very Neo-Prog to my ears with a distinct touch of the IQ sound.

Even though all of these tracks feature their unique moments, I don't really find any of the first five compositions to be memorable enough and the ones that are manage to overstay their welcome by a margin. There are definitely many instances that pay homage to prog classics from the past, like Liquid Kings's intro section that sounds exactly like the intro to Kansas' Song For America, while The Gathering reminds me a lot of Marillion's Garden Party. Fortunately, the albums magnum opus of a title track is something that is well worth waiting for and once it comes around the momentum pretty much sweeps away all the previous signs of unoriginality for me.

I do get a few fond memories whenever I listen to this album but ultimately I can't recommend it to everyone since the sub-genre that Citizen Cain were going for with this release is already overcrowded by many classic acts that this collective can't outmatch in the hook department. Good, but non-essential record that is well worth a listen if you're a fan of Symphonic Prog.

***** star songs: Serpents In Camouflage (13:23)

**** star songs: Stab In The Back (6:50) Harmless Criminal (10:31) Dance Of The Unicorn (6:28)

*** star songs: Liquid Kings (11:27) The Gathering (11:07)

"Fallen Angels" opens with atmosphere along with these powerful background sounds. A beat a minute in with some heaviness. A cool way to start and my favourite track. "Children Of Fire" features vocals and a laid back sound 30 seconds in. Man he sounds like Gabriel here. It gets a little fuller with guitar. Some heavier guitar 4 1/2 minutes in when the vocals stop. Piano a minute later as different sounds come and go.Vocals are back 7 1/2 minutes in. A calm before 10 1/2 minutes but it doesn't last long. Prominant guitar late. "Shades" opens with drums then it kicks in quickly. A calm after a minute. Piano a minute later and vocals after 2 1/2 minutes. It kicks in late to end it.

"Falling From Sephiroth" opens with synths as some heavy outbursts come and go.Vocals before 2 minutes then it kicks in a minute later. Nice.The tempo and mood continue to shift. "Rivers Of Twilight" is uptempo and bombastic to start then it settles in with reserved vocals. Piano too then it kicks back in around 3 1/2 minutes. It settles once more with vocals before 5 minutes. "Inner Silence" has these experimental noises with drums. It kicks in for the final minute. "Wandering In Darkness" opens in a bombastic manner some good bass follows.Vocals after 1 1/2 minutes in this uptempo tune. It settles back before 4 minutes. I like when it kicks in as we get a good instrumental section.Vocals do return though. "Sleeping In Penumbra" opens with piano and vocals and it gets fuller before a minute.The tempo proceeds to change. A powerful section before 7 minutes then it settles back. "Eternity" opens with reserved vocals and keys and that's pretty much what we get throughout.

A good album but like all their others (except for "Somewhere But Yesterday") it doesn't deserve 4 stars. The guitar and vocals get on my nerves on this album after a while.