Reviews:Here's a really great review by Hester Stasse, Link to actual review Greyhaven is the self-titled debut album by a young band from the US. Like so many band names in the progressive genre, this one is picked from one of Tolkien's novels. However, contrary to many bands named after characters or places in his books, this band is a great asset to the prog scene in my opinion. The band was formed in December 1996 when the two guitarists Nate Howard and E (Ethan J. Matthews) started jamming with drummer Nick Cipriano. After months of looking for a bass player and a vocalist without any luck, Matthews decided to partly switch to synthesizers to fill the gaps. In the middle of 1997, the trio recorded their first demo/EP, which got very good reviews around the world. Even though many reviewers claimed not to miss a vocalist in their line-up, the band thought differently and started recording the music for their debut album with vocals in mind. Finally, in 1998, they found the perfect voice to fit their music: that of Brian Francis. Now complete, the band finished recording their debut CD, Greyhaven, in June of 1999 and started working on their next album immediately after that. The artwork of the CD - created by singer Brian Francis himself - looks very dark and mysterious, depicting the atmosphere which the music and the lyrics paint pretty well. (Even though I do prefer the stylish cover designed by Mattias Norén to the crude Japanese temple guardian, which the members of Greyhaven call "the Angry Guy".) The use of black and blue throughout the entire booklet seems to reflect the bruised soul of the first-person narrator in the lyrics. The first track, Ride The Horizon, is an instrumental one. A sparkling, 80s-like keyboard sound fills the air. What immediately strikes me when the other instruments join in is the crystal clear production of the nicely layered instruments, and also the absence of a bass guitar. The latter is taken over by both guitars and keyboards, and that adds a nice different sound to the music, in my opinion. Setting Sun is definitely one of my favourites on this album. Heavily
distorted guitars accompanied by light keys and a deep keyboard bass
line open the track. Then the rhythm slows down and choral voices open
the way for the first vocal part of the CD. Sadly though, it seems like
the vocals underwent an entirely different treatment production-wise
than the instruments. It actually sounds as if they were recorded by
someone standing outside the studio door and they almost drown amidst
the full guitar, keyboard and drum sound. A real shame, since Francis
has a great voice. His classical training is clearly audible by the
amount of vibrato he uses, but (contrary to some albums I've heard)
it never becomes annoying on this CD. The next track, Mirror My Eyes, is the second longest of the album.
It features an aggressive intro, again with a deep keyboard bass line,
distorted guitars and relatively light keys. The various melodies of
the individual instruments make this song feel kind of chaotic. The
fact that the lyrics at times do not entirely seem to "fit"
into the space left by the instruments adds to that feeling. Reverbed and delayed (undistorted) arpeggiated guitar and piano lead us into the fourth track, Downfall. This is a more ballad-like song, which features a heavy chorus, a "dirty" sounding guitar solo. The sound of the guitars and the melody strongly remind me of Stiltskin (known from their 1994 hit Inside and their singer Ray Wilson who later joined Genesis). Apart from that, Francis's voice in this track reminds me a lot of Wolverine's Stefan Zell in their quieter songs. A great song and a nice moment of rest on the CD. Approaching The Twilight starts with deep, echoing piano tones. When the vocals come in, they are slow and mournful. The guitars and drums are extremely heavy and very much in the foreground during the first part of the song. They are more in the background in the second part - which is distinguished by Omnia Opera-like "electronic"-sounding reverbed keys. The amount of reverberation increases until the music suddenly stops and only the echoes remain. This, however, is not the end of the song; a spoken fragment - the words of which are almost impossible to make out - is played over a dark soundscape painted by the keyboard. It ends abruptly and the next track starts almost immediately. Track 6, Shards Of Sky, with its duration of 11:09 minutes is the longest track of the album. The beginning of this song features nice, undistorted guitars with a big amount of delay and reverb à la Marillion. This relative quietness is disturbed by some raw guitars and heavy drumming. And that is only the beginning of the brute force the band still has in store for us, because this is by far the heaviest track on the CD. Fast, distorted guitars, double bass drums and a very fast bass pattern set the tone, while the keys fly majestically above them. There are several returns to quieter themes and the song is concluded by a very beautiful guitar solo, which seems to indicate that there is still a beacon of hope once the quite desperate lyrics have faded away. Tracks 7, 8 and 9 form one continuous piece of music. Solitude Surrounding is the first part of this trilogy. This song is a lot less heavy than Shards Of Sky and includes some really nice instrumentals and a great bass line. There is almost no distinction between verse and chorus; the largest part of the lyrics is sung in a continuous line, interrupted only by some instrumental parts. The last bit of text is sung over a chord progression which sounds a lot like the end of Marillion's King. Then the track transforms into a soundscape with the well-known sound of a train driving over the joints of the rails, turning darker when the train sound fades away. The final 1.5 minute and the start of track 8 call up associations with the soundscapes made by Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree. In track 8, the title track Greyhaven, the soundscape gets expanded with a great keyboard bass line. The vocals are very soft, almost whispered, and the words are extremely stretched. One by one, more instruments join in until thunder cracks and only keyboard, vocals and the sound of a heavy rainshower are left. A really beautiful track. The sound of the rain is gradually overpowered by slow drums, keys
and spacey guitars in the last track, Cold Night By The Fortress. After
a few lines of text, sung in the whispered way used in track 8, the
speed increases and the vocals become louder. Another change of gear
for the chorus and the sound becomes really "full". The next
verse is again sung like in track 8 and flows into an instrumental part
with some rhythm changes. In conclusion, this album is definitely recommended to those who are into the heavier kind of melodic (neo-)prog where heavy guitars get the same amount of space as the keyboards and where the vocals are not "typical metal vocals" (i.e. largely sung in the higher register of the voice) - for instance people who liked the heavier tracks on Arena's latest album Immortal?. The fact that the vocals sound much less clear than the instruments (this seems to improve somewhat towards the end of the CD) is definitely a shame since this debut is really impressive apart from that. If you want to listen to it yourself, check out the band's website, where several audio files and even an entire song (The Setting Sun) can be downloaded. I for one will look forward to Greyhaven's next release. Conclusion: 8.5 out of 10.
Formed in 1996 by Ethan Matthews (synthesisers and guitars), Nate Howard (guitars) and Nick Cipriano (drums), Greyhaven quickly achieved a certain success thanks to their first demo that contained the song "Downfall" and the suite of 21 minutes "Vessel". After this promising premiere the group decided to proof several singers, a position that was occupied finally by Brian Francis, thanks to the help of Matt Guillory, of the horrible Dali´s Dilemma. The quartet records their first and homonymous album and Howard leaves the band after having signed with Rectangular Records. Well, hot from the oven here you have the review of one of the most promising bands in the current metal-prog scene. Metal-progressive did I say?... Yes, but don't think that all that is metal-prog gets a bad review from me. Although the German groups that try to make the XXVII part of the Keeper of the seven keys, the high school students that seek to play a hundred thousand notes in a compass, and the guitar heroes that emulate Blackmore or Malmsteen, make me feel sick, there is always a piece of my hard-rocking heart that is grateful for the irruption of metal bands that try to make something really new, like Greyhaven. The instrumental introduction ³Ride the horizon" (2:24) already shows that this is not a band with the previously defines negative features. A powerful instrumental -not heavy- based on some truly original and clean keyboards and an effective guitar make the listener be predisposed already to listen to something different. The first vocal piece ³Setting sun" (5:46) could be recommend to the follower of the most technical heavy as well as to any crazy fan of goth-doom, with the caveat that in this case Greyhaven has much more "punch" and originality that most bands in the mentioned styles. The keyboard backdrop is very important in this band, so the final structure, in spite of tending to be hard, always leaves a place for the intervention of Matthews, who displays a futurist intervention in this piece. Francis' voice, very well modulated, is still a typical ³hard² voice although with less affectation. "Mirror my eyes" (9:04) begins with some intricate rhythms that are alternated with more standard but more interesting moments. The curiousity of this band is that in the instrumental moments, instead of playing crazy riffs, there is always a place for original interventions in which Matthews displays his savoir faire with the synthesisers. If you wonder if Greyhaven is able to maintain the quality during a 9 minute song, the answer is affirmative without a doubt. "Downfall" (6:14) is the topic that Metallica should have composed for ...and justice for all to be a heavy progressive album and in which power and subtlety cohabit in a mysterious harmony. As a final guideline, a superb melodic guitar solo. "Approaching the twilight" (5:18) is a very mysterious and kaleidoscopic song, with encircling synthesisers in an infinity of crescendos and with some interventions of keyboards toward the end that remind from Jean Michel Jarre!. It is impossible to show more originality. "Shards of sky" (11:09) is the longest song in the album and one in which the Greyhaven machine slows down a bit, this time to seek to do something already seen years ago. Nevertheless, musicians play soundly when confronting dozens of rhythm changes. "Solitude surrounding" (9:01) is in the beginning an atypical slow song and with a very experimental and really progressive structure, with some blinding arrangements and a really strange end. "Greyhaven" (5:34) it is another turn of the screw inside the concept of the band. A very psychedelic keyboard wraps the voices in a Floyd ambient to go into electronic sidewalks. The best in the cd. For the end, ³Cold night by the fortress" (8:24) follows the line of the precedent piece until turning into a more descriptive and luminous composition. In definitive, and just as another progVisions partner commented, it is necessary for this type of bands to exist. Greyhaven possesses few tics that link them to the badly called heavy prog (amongst others the singer), but in a 90% they are shown as a very original group that I believe that will give a lot to speak about in the future. With this I don't mean this is a proposal that the fans of After Crying or Yes will love, but I believe that the hardest sector of our readers can find a pleasing surprise with this work. The rest, anyway, wonıt lose anything trying it. Alfonso Algora May 2000
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