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Cliffhanger - Cold Steel

Artist:	Cliffhanger
Title:	Cold Steel
Label:	SI Music SI3070-2
Length(s):	57 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1995
Month of review:	09/1995

Line up

Gijs Koopman - bass, keyboards
Dick Heijboer - keyboards
Rinie Huigen - guitar, vocals
Hans Boonk - drums

Tracks

1)	Views	7.15
2)	Kill Your Darlings	5.50
3)	Vessels	7.34
4)	Six Minutes To Countdown	5.49
5)	Colossus	8.13
6)	Remaining Rancour	4.33
7)	Bad Dreams (cruel Visions)	18.21

Summary

A debut album so not a lot to tell here. I have once seen them play one song live in Uden. Unfortunately we couldn't see the whole set due to not being able to find the place where the gig was held. If we have to believe the accmpanying information this band should sound like a cross between Genesis, UK, VDGG and Yes. Let's listen and find out.

The music

The album doesn't start out very good: lots of things going on, but little of consequence. After a while an atmosphere is evoked a la Winds and Wuthering. The song does pick up, but still suffers from its intro into nowhereness. Cliffhanger is said to be one of those bands not into neo-prog but as hanging on to the glorious past. The problem is that they do not only hang on to it stylistically, but that they can be compared to the rather amateuristic or naive approaches of early eighty bands like Taurus, Ywis and Egdon Heath during their first album. This is both lyrically, musically and vocally. Especially the vocals are hard to swallow, because you feel that the guy that sings isn't really a singer but rather a band member that has been chosen to sing, because no one else would.

The fact that they sound like early 80 Dutch bands also means that they are in fact sound a likes of sound a likes and to be honest I really can't hear the UK and VDGG influences anywhere. For me to sound like VDGG, the singer has to sound like Hammill and this means that the lyrics have to be shouted into the microphone. Views and even more the second song remind me mostly of Genesis and maybe a little Yes. So, this again is a CD full of Genesis admirates. (Is that a word? Sound like emirates, but I like it. Well, you know what I mean.)

It is important to note that contrary to most neo bands, this band has a lot of room for keyboard solos and this probably makes for the seventies sound. Also the guitar sound is Hackett either solo or with Genesis. The second song is better than the first in my opionion although the end is unsatisfactory. The problem is hat like with any classical piece they do not know how to end the bloody thing. It has some nice chord parts however, especially the quicker parts on guitar. I must admit however that these parts do sound familiar.

Song number three is again typically Gabriels Genesis especially in the vocal aspects of the song. This vocalization does lend some drama to the whole. The song is a bit subdued overall although the necessary solos are as always present.

Six minutes closer is again a menacing piece of work, that works out rather well. Their an interlude here that reminds me of Theme of Secrets by Jobson on speed, so that might be the UK influence :).

Colossus contains a few superfluous solos on the keyboard and again I'm not really sure where they are going. The vocal lines are not good either, they fail to interest.

Remaining Rancour is an up-tempo instrumental of little importance.

As is usually the case, the longest track on the album has to be the best: at the start the song is sung like it's part of a rock opera. The song is bouncy in the beginning. The guitar leads with a some dated keys in the background evoking again that seventies sound. This song does have a UK feel, both in the quiet as the more busy parts, thanks to the keys. Again, the song can be quite menacing and they do manage to do that very well, in most songs. In this song it results in quite a build up with well worked out melodies and emotional, grating vocals. At 11 and a half, the mood changes and we arrive in a quieter water. The piano takes over with a good melancholy melody. The song has drama without a singer saying it is so. It still (How couldn't it?) contains some tempo changes to which I'd say, Must you? but the song as good in it's own right, so I won't whine on. In this song the singer shows that he's capable, but I have to admit that you can not fill an album with songs like these. There has to be some variation and especially in the more uneventful tunes with less drama, the singing is a bit mediocre.

Conclusion

I think this band made their album too early to make an album really of consequence. It has its nice parts (but what progressive album doesn't), but they do sometimes get lost in a morass trying to find their way out into meaningful music. They do not always succeed. Most songs have their good points but their bad ones as well, which is unfortunate. The vocals are problematic. I have the idea that I'm listening to someone who knows how to pronounce English, but in a way it still doesn't sound right. So the singing deserves some attention. Best songs are 4 and by far 7 that shows that they are capable of pulling it off. I wonder if this band will go into the direction that Egdon Heath did.