Reviews

Aaaaahhhh, those fabulous 70s. I remember them well. A time like no other in the era of (prog) music. And to bring it all back to me is a new band from Germany called Alias Eye. Borrowing heavily from the 70s in style, yet with modern day recording precision, the band straddles the boundaries of rock and prog. Because lead vocalist Philip Griffiths sounds just like dad (Martin Griffith, singer for the first incarnation of Beggar's Opera - and who also guests on track 9!), it's hard not to think of Beggars Opera when you hear this CD. However, rather than doing keyboard-driven prog, the band chooses to explore the more accessible areas of 70s rock; proggy in places, bluesy and pop infected in others. "Field Of Names", track one, is a riffy little number that utilises accordion and an Eastern-tinged lead guitar. It's not the best track on the CD but it encapsulates the adventurous, yet tight sound found in early 70's blues based rock. "Premortal Dance" follows. First released on Alias Eye's EP and the stand out track there, this song is improved by better production and arrangements. It's a flowing, sometimes soaring track with a nice foundation of Hammond, a scorching extended guitar solo, and very nice chorus. Again, the tight mature instrumentation of the band is showcased. "Wasteland" takes us back to the 70s again, sounding definitively like a mountain of UK rock acts from the time. I hear a riff straight out of Beggar's Opera on this one. There's a nice mellow change halfway through where Griffin's voice languidly steers us around some relaxed electric piano. The band begins to expand and breathe on its next three tracks, all clocking in at roughly seven minutes. "Just Another Tragic Song" begins inconspicuously with a nondescript melody, but soon evolves using a wide spectrum of instrumentation including plucking violins, honky tonk piano and virtually every guitar sound you can imagine. The changes in mood and heaviness are many. "Driven" is perhaps one of the most commercial songs, sounding very AOR in general. But like all of Alias Eye's songs, there's some pleasant surprises along the way. In this case another tasty guitar solo Matthias Richter who sounds unbelievably like Michael Schenker during his UFO days. "River Running," "Hybrid" and "Mystery" all showcase further proof of the band's mature sense of composition and excellent musicianship. But the real reward on this CD is when you get to track 9. "The Readiness Is All" begins with a languid, lazy guitar. Immediately, we get into a duet vocal exchanging verse between Martin and Philip which, as an absolute Beggar's Opera fan is exciting to hear. It's been decades since I've heard anything new from Martin and he and son pull out all the stops. Some more great piano from keys meister Vytas Lemke and the song soars, occasionally falling back into a 70s riff groove. The extro is an absolutely brilliant Latin break with saxes and salsa-esque rhythm. I love it. This part should have gone on for a couple of minutes longer. "An End In Itself" closes things off in a proggy note. That "Strawberry Fields" mellotron sound forms around a powerful melody. Here, in subtle fashion, all the members of the band comes together to create a final triumph of their borrowed, yet entirely Alias Eye sound. Final word should be made about the packaging. While the general trend in indie releases today are less lavish, more pragmatic packaging, DVS records has allowed Alias Eye the luxury of a Pink Floyd style no-expenses spared booklet extraordinaire. Individual artwork for each song lyric page makes this a disk worth owning for the packaging alone. This is the first of many great releases from a band to be reckoned with.

"Field of names" has the quality to take all prog charts by storm. This german band has recorded an album that surely will become a classic: Great atmosphere, skilled songwriting, great technical skills always serving the song instead of the technical weirdos, wide melodies, defensive complexity, professional arrangements, entertaining joy of playing prog music and last but not least one of the best singers of the german prog scene. The sound of this release is as perfect as the artwork (Mattias Noren, who else). Soft melancholie, jazzin' fun, neoprogressive hymns, symphonic chords, soft complexity and groove ... ALIAS EYE love the music they play and so will you. ALIAS EYE have recorded a progressive opus, which easily can compete with the releases of the big progressive bands ... spectacular !

10 points

Alias Eye sees DVS records taking a slightly different direction, art rock this time around. Alias Eye was founded in late 1998 when Philip Griffiths (vocals), Matthias Richter (guitar), Frank Fischer (bass) and Ludwig Benedek (drums) teamed up with keyboarder Vytas Lemke. After releasing a debut demo CD "Beyond the Mirror" in 1999, they signed with the Dutch label DVS Records. Graced by, probably, Mattias Noren's best artwork to date, this release comes across as very mature and well-developed. I must admit that art rock is normally not my preferred genre because I usually associate it with lightweight and long drawn pretentious songs. Luckily, Alias Eye's music is very vocal and chorus-oriented while the instrumental indulgences are limited. The songs have a definite catchiness with recognisable choruses without being cheesy. I had seen them live before hearing the CD and a lot of the parts like the chorus to "Driven" were still channelling through my subconscious. In general the songs have a laid-back atmosphere showing the different shades of rock, funk, and jazz to classical. The music is carried by the soulful voice of Philip Griffiths. A minor criticism would be that, although the production is good, the guitar gets put back in the mix too often when the chorus sets in. Recommendable for Spock's Beard fans but a bit too light for my taste... (CR)

It still exists, the good old Prog Rock. Okay, it never had been really gone, but the outstanding releases of the more recent past were few and far between. But just like Germany's CYDONIAN, their country-mates ALIAS EYE have just released their debut via Rising Sun! Their Prog Rock sounds fresh and is very song-oriented. The frill-factor also is on a reasonable label. The songs are to the point, even though they sometimes stray a little. But that is just what the Prog-community wants. The vocals of Philip Griffiths turn out to be very homogenous and listenable. There also are a few rather untypical instruments like saxophone or accordion, which adds to the variability. The Prog-scene already had celebrated the demo of the Mannheim-band, for the typical Metal-freak this album is fairly uninteresting! A pity, because I think that this debut is more than remarkable and I really cross my fingers for ALIAS EYE. Great music!

Progressor

Philip Griffiths and another band's mastermind, keyboard player Vytas Lemke, with the help of their colleagues, very talented musicians, have created an album unique in some ways. Call it Neo Prog-Metal or Classic Progressive Hard-Rock, "Field of Names" is an album of such high quality that, given a proper distribution, it will not only (yet obviously) make a lot of Prog-heads all over the world happy, but also, thanks to such specific nuances as a structural haziness of the album as a whole, bright and very tasteful themes, not too complex yet really ingenious arrangements, wonderful and diverse vocal parts should find a good response with a big audience. Sure, if "Field of Names" had been released in the middle of the 1980s, Alias Eye would've attained the same respected status as the bands like The Mission, Magnum, Pallas, and even Marillion had at the time, that were all great bands, based on major labels. In my view, Alias Eye is one of those several contemporary Prog bands that have a potential to become fresh and, the main thing, alive entities of already completely dead contemporary mainstream music.

VM. August 30, 2001

Rock Net

The music fits in with bands like Cairo "heavy-ness-wise" but that's where comparison stops, because Alias Eye have a pretty unique sound. Relying on their skills, they offer a multitude of excellent compositions without depending on over the top production. Don't get me wrong: the album sounds excellent! But in a modest way. Philip Griffiths (vocals), Matthias Richter (guitars), Vytas Lemke (keyboards), Frank Fischer (bass) and Ludwig Benedek (drums) have written and recorded 10 tracks that impress because of the wonderful arrangements and great vocal lines. A large part of the music's atmosphere is defined by the keyboards. Hats off to Vytas!!! Not only a very talented player, but very skilful in picking the sounds to use as well. Another thing I noticed is the excellent way in which the rhythm section and guitarist work together, changing places playing riffs. The overall sound is very modern, yet still very much organic. And that approach fits the material like a glove. Singer Philip Griffith stars in the wonderful "Just Another Tragic Song", singing a calm and well thought out part if I ever heard one. Incomparable to any other singer I have heard so far. Pay attention to the acoustic guitar on that track, by the way. Another example of how well the band has thought about coloring their songs. Running for nearly eight minutes, "Driven" is most epic in proportion. Mainly due to the manner in which the songs builds, slowly gaining strength, with great riffs, wonderful lyrics and a great 'muddy' organ! I just lifted 2 songs out of the bulk, but ever single one is of high quality. Now the bad stuff: both the first and second tracks end quite suddenly. That's an old trick (Dream Theater's "Pull Me Under" does it) but one I have never liked much. It's just such a brutal way of ripping the listener out of a good song... Second complaint: (and I always complain about this in reviews of albums I really like) Guys; please go for at least 10 minutes more on the next one! You have every right to throw another song or two at your fans!!!

Dan Friendly

Axiom Of Choice

The first few listens did not convince me yet, but later ones did: this is really a good album and a large step forward from their demo disc. Productionally there is nothing wrong and all songs stand on themselves and the album never tires. The music is never overly complex, but definitely what we would call progressive. The band winks an eye at Spocks Beard and sometimes the progmetal scene. All this said, the fact remains that this is simply a sound album, one in which I could find little fault and which should have universal appeal.

Jurriaan Hage