SIEGE

The second Imaginaerium studio offering from prog veteran Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena, Shadowland) and former Swedish Soul/R&B singer Laura Piazzai. The music is quite theatric--sometimes cinematic--and always impeccibly-engineered--and never as shlocky or over-the-top bombastic as it could have been--as the corny (almost embarrassing) videos would make them seem.

1. "Cry Boudica" (7:54) solid NeoProg with a very-theatric female vocal power ballad from singer Laura Piazzai. It's all well and good though there's nothing very new or exciting here until end of the sixth minute when guitarist Mirko Sangrigoli drops an excellent display of 1980s classic rock shredding. The first of a collection of songs that seem to be trying rouse the ancient battle cries residing within each of us survivors of the first millenium of the current Common Era. (13.125/15)

2. "The Final Redoubt" (4:05) just a touch too much melodrama in Laura's vocal performance over the verses, yet it serves the choruses well (the best parts of the song). (9/10)

3. "Footprints" (5:50) a four-chords-over-eight-measures foundation over which Laura (later backed by Clive and herself) gives us a "We Built This City"-like Grace Slick performance. Solid drumming and electric guitar work from Mirko Sangrigoli. Great if you're into the heavier side of Classic Rock's iconic songs. (9/10)

4. "All There Is to See" (3:15) "cello" and piano support the near-operatic/theatric voice of Laura Piazzai. The song sounds quite like something from (or belonging to) a West End or Broadway stage musical. Not unlike something Sarah Brightman or Ethel Merman would've been in. That's it! No idea what she's singing about or why the song requires this kind of power and emotion (other than to try to reach the audience members at the deepest recesses of the theater). (8.875/10)

5. "When My Eyes Are Closed" (6:29) nice surround sound spherical imagery from the engineering room. Piano and Laura in what sounds as if it could turn into one of those classic pseudo-opera arias from Sarah Brightman from a more-modern Andrew Llyod-Weber--though Laura's voice here sounds much more like ALANNAH MYLES or Dutch band Scarlet Stories' lead singer, Lisette Van Den Berg. It's either Lloyd-Weber or 1980s popular hair band classic rock. (8.875/10)

6. "To the Victor Go the Spoils" (6:46) opens as if the band is trying to create an eerie, late-night horror/creep-show soundtrack--like Nina Hagen from "Auf'm Friedhof" from her debut album before she screams out "Kleiner Vampi". At the very end of the first minute there is a transition into much more bombastic, theatric music, which lasts a minute as Laura vocalese's Nina style before the music again drops down--this time into something more reflective of some Spanish stylings. Castanets, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA-like passage takes root in the fourth minute before giving way to another solo Spanish guitar bridge into something more mysterious. This is so cinematic! It must be built around some film or video idea with so many shifts and transitions occurring about every 20-seconds. I like it despite its rather cliché TSO bombast in the more dynamic high points and its Sergio Leone/Ennio Morricone Spaghetti Western finale. (13.5/15)

7. "Never Burn the Cakes" (4:06) this one could've been laying around on a shelf collecting dust since the 1960s! It sure sounds like it! So this is what 1960s Prog Folk would have sounded like were it to have had the production techniques & technology available in the 21st Century! Not bad but nothing ground-breaking or Earth-shattering here. (8.70/10)

8. "The Last Arrow" (5:44) Clive takes a turn at the lead vocal with his gnarly, ancient voice--here supported by an anachronistic-sounding guitar before the rest of the band (and elaborate synth strings) join in. The force and power being conveyed screams out "Viking anthem!" if anything. The lyric is just too much like a adrenaline-and-vengeance-rousing battle dirge. (8.75/10)

9. "Deep" (3:07) back to the softer side of the Lloyd-Weber rock opera: an "orchestra"-supported heart-strings-pulling ballad from Laura. Well done--and goal met (pulling my heart-strings quite professionally)--but what of it? It feels as if it needs more contextual significance (as if it were really a part of a rock opera/stage musical). (9/10)

10. "Blood Moon" (5:17) Clive's old didgeridoo-like voice sounds as much like an old sea captain's as a rum-running pirate--which is probably a desirable feature considering the subject matter of this song. When it opens I find myself almost laughing but, quite surprisingly, as he and Laura work their way through this sea shanty with only drone and toms it wins the listener over--convinces me of its sincerity. The hard pagan rock fourth minute (and beyond), however, causes me to lose some of the respect gained. (How many sea shanties turn into heavy metal extravaganzas?) Nice guitar shredding from Simone Milliava (but is it wasted?) (8.875/10)

Total Time 52:33

If you watch Clive and Laura's videos I don't think you'll be able to help getting a bit creeped out by them. The music, lyrics, and production are all too schlocky and near-amateuristic for me. The metal tag given to the band is deserved only for Laura's melodramatic vocal performances, the music too often rests back in pretentious spaciousness the seems to promise big kinetic outbursts but, then, often fail to deliver (or fail to deliver up to the rest of the song's latent promise). This is melodrama with some bombast. I understand that much of what made classic prog great was the dramatic flare of the storytellers that were drawing from the traditions of the world's great epics, sagas, myths, tales, legends, that come out of humanity's deep questions, mysteries, superstitions, and archetypes--and for those who still feed off of this, you may love this album--but, for my own personal tastes and interests, I would recommend going to the "classics"--in literature, music, and other arts--before choosing this for your entertainment.

B/four stars; an excellent collection of theatric/cinematic calls to arms/revenge. This feels like a fairly novel use of the progressive/classical rock power ballad expression--like cries from the dead (the long dead). I'm not certain of the artist's intentions with delivery of these ancient history-inspired lyrics and calls to action, but I'm sure there are plenty of prog lovers who will love both the music and the adrenaline-rousing performances.

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