THE KILLING SILENCE

''In the City'' was just the beginning of a succesful career for Egdon Heath with the band supporting IQ for their Dutch concerts.What was hard to deal with on the live performances was the fact that the lead vocals were handled by the two keyboardists of the band.So soon enough they recruited a lead vocalist, Jens van der Stempel.In 1991 their debut was reissued in CD format together with Egdon Heath's sophomore album ''The Killing Silence'', recorded at the RDS Studios in the small Jubbega village and released on the Dutch label SI Music.

While ''In the city'' was a rather uneven album, consisting of strong and weaker tracks, the new Egdon Heath effort is definitely more consistent, rockier and balanced.However it lacks the killer tracks of the first album, as all of the compositions here sound good and satisfying with no weak points but also without any masterful moments.The band sounds a bit rougher and darker than on the debut, playing Neo Prog with strong TWELFTH NIGHT and PALLAS overtones, featuring grandiose keyboard passages and beautiful guitar parts, both on lead and solo parts, with the new singer being well-tight with the rest of the crew.But Egdon Heath never forget about their more sensitive side, throwing in a couple of decent ballads with emotional content, good guitar solos and elegant piano work.The rockier tunes though remain the driving force of the new CD, having a nice symphonic sound in many instrumental parts, a few well-executed breaks and a sufficient alternation between different emotions.

I certainly can see why this one is regarded the best of the first two Egdon Heath works.Its consistency throughout and the more atmospheric style is warmly praised by prog fans, but personally I miss the couple of the monster moments of ''In the city''.The second album by this Dutch crew already belongs to the collection of most Neo Prog fans out there and is still warmly recommended to the rest of the prog audience.