Cassette Review  

Rating 100%

reviewed by Richard Head

The first side opens with a long instrumental, very reminiscent of CAMEL, who unlike MARILLION aren't famous. Singer DAVID BURNS uses his Gaelic tongue to evoke images of swirling mist across the Heather of a frozen wasteland!

The opening track track "DAWN FROM INSIDE THE HOLLOW WILLOW” provides a colourful foreward to the tale of "THE TOWER OF SAURON". The inner sleeve of the record provides the listener with the story line and lyrics to our hero's plight in reaching the Towers of Sauron, in order to retrieve the lost golden ring. The art work is at it's highest calibre, for a small independent label with very little resources.

"JOURNEY OVER DALE AND HILL”, and "ASCENSION ON SAURON'S DOMAIN”, allow words to flow eloquently involving the listener in the hero's struggle to reach his destination. The guitar brings forth glowing colour to the story, first the pale blues and greens of the lushest countryside, to the fiery reds in the first assault on SAURON. MARILLION would probably write something completely different to this, and probably not as good, and the lack of critical comparisons will indubitably haunt the band. This is a real shame as had they like played like MARILLION they would be deemed to hide in their shadow, alas it seams that major success could be sniffing at their heels.

The second side of the album, “BRIEF RESPITE”, "TAKEN AT LAST", "RETRIEVAL", and "CELEBRATION", is every bit as glorious as side A. However, I won't spoil the story, although the nice twist at the end about the hero really being a heroine, and using the ring to wed FALLATIO. A must for all SERIOUS PROG fans, an excellent album, ten out of ten!