OUT IN THE DARK

American guitar player Dale Hauskins joined the quartet surrounding keyboardist and principal songwriter Roland Rockstuhl for this offering, adding jazzy melodic textures reminiscent of Allan Holdsworth and Steve Hackett best shown on his song-ending solo on the Genesis sounding 'Nocturnal Flight'. The keyboards are still the dominating instruments here with Rockstuhl providing plenty of synths, piano (the 'Duke'-piano as I like to call it) and sweeping mellotron choirs.

'Full Moon' starts the album off strong with Urs Hochuli's dominant bass backed by jazzy keyboard lines, wobbly synths and Peter Furrer's slick drum breaks. Vocalist Peter Wolf provides a subdued saxophon. The title track is another great one that starts slow and slightly ominous with a very deep sounding bass, while showcasing the band's jazzy playfulness in the more uplifting second half of this ten-minute epic. I have to mention that although the band was based in the german part of Switzerland, Wolf has next to no accent. His voice (some vage similarities to the likes of Gabriel and Hammill, but mostly very distinctive and original) is certainly not for everyone though.

'Wintertime Nights' opens the second side picking up the general music themes of the side one opener albeit in a more uplifting and poppy way. Rockstuhl's keyboad solo in the middle of the song has again a strong Genesis influence to it, not too dissimilar to Tony Banks' wild soloing on 'In The Cage'. Flame Dream have often been accused of plagiarism and even the major fan that I am, I can't deny the obvious bits and pieces ('Volcano' from the debut having an obvious 'Cinema Show' touch and parts of 'A Poem Of Dancing' from 'Elements' sound very 'Afterglow'-ish) on this album though, while a general Genesis touch is evident (mixed with a bit of Van der Graaf), there are no outright copy parts.

The majority of the second side is occupied by the majestic three part 'Strange Meeting'-suite. The first part sounds like a more rocking continuation of the title tracks' second half before 'Caleidoscope' pulls us back in into the darkness with a sudden menacing melltron choir. Wolf carries this instrumental part with his sax while Furrer gallops along on the drums perfectly timing the use of this cymbals to Rockstuhl's nervous synths. A riff from Hauskins draws us to a sax-dominated section very reminiscent of fellow countrymen 'Island'. We at last emerge from the darkness in the short and sweet third part as a more uplifting mellotron choir draws this piece of art to a close.

Flame Dream's first four albums are all excellent sadly vinyl only progressive tour de forces. I often flipflop between the adventurous 'Elements', the clinical dryness of 'Supervision' and this atmospheric beast as my personal favourite. As 'Out In The Dark' also saw a wider release in Germany it is still quite affordable and comes highly recommended. It is a very strong fourty-minute progressive tour the force, something seldom archieved in the year 1981.

Share this FLAME DREAM review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Phipz-97
• Report this review (#2737452)
• Buy FLAME DREAM music online with PA partners
• Show all FLAME DREAM MP3/Stream
• Go to FLAME DREAM page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Out in the Dark page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for FLAME DREAM related discussions