FEAR

As an owner of three studio albums by this band I think it's interesting to look at the development by reviewing their third album. I appraised their debut with 4 stars and its successor with 3 and at first I thought this release was going to be a tough call in between. But after listening one more time I came to the conclusion that 4 stars is the right call and I will explain why.

The debut album was a pretty accessible one with two great epics that made me decide for 4 stars whilst the successor was more of a strange album that made my appreciation go in undulation. At first I liked it but in course of time it slipped away from me not standing the test of time and gave it 3 because of that. I'm telling this because of the coming statement that I believe with this album Fear they came to full maturity. The compositions are very steady and make me love all of them just as much as in the beginning. And that's at the same time the second conclusion I want to state: all songs of this album are very much worth while, making it an all over great performance. Really a pity they weren't appreciated more in the years of their existence because it's very likely it was the main reason for their break up. I remember a live gig by GLD in the Netherlands where I was one of just about 25 people. It's really embarrassing both for the audience as for the band to experience something like that. And then worse of all was there were even two more bands to perform. Anyway, it proved the band wasn't really making it over here, I don't know the situation in England but in my country they didn't succeed obviously.

I think with more appreciation they could have had a shining career because quality wasn't really the problem. It was probably a matter of promotion and PR and things like that. Real shame but slight consolation: this album gets 4 stars by me and I would recommend it to any neo progger that is willing to check out unknown material. I myself will try to lay hold of their last album because it's missing in my collection and I want to be complete with this band !