Cemetery Junction

You’ve got to give it to Dave Hill… he’s been exorcising his demons since time immemorial, making his band one of the longest-standing outfits on the circuit; fair play. Fame unjustly eluded him/them in the 80’s when the guys released a string of pretty decent albums, closing the decade with the pompously-titled but very solid music-wise “Taking the World by Storm”. This supposed magnum opus was followed by two almost equally strong outings, the band having nothing to be ashamed of when they split in 1992, their brand of heavy metal/hard rock firmly staying the old school course till the end.

A new millennium, a new beginning for myriad old timers, including for our English friends… or rather friend as from the original team it’s only Hill that has shown up for this second audition. The comeback album “Spaced Out Monkey” didn’t promise much title-wise, and indeed the music was not much to talk about, Hill settling for the good old hard rock, with a few echoes from the band’s early days (the debut “Night of the Demon”, above all). A testing of the new millennium soil of some sorts, hopefully… but no; the delivery remained in the same not very exciting, plain recreationally executed at times, rock-ish parametres for the next two outings, Hills’ soaring calm warm baritone the major merit.

Standing on a “Cemetery Junction” this time, one that provides no way out of the chosen stance; in other words, those of you who have passed by the mild rocky tactics of the previous three efforts, will be hit by a strong sense of deja-vu as this opus here is near-identical to them. Well, the band have never been the heaviest metal outfit out there, but the bite and the edge that used to go hand-in-hand with the mellower more complex arrangements in the past, have been left in the trenches… and forgotten for a large portion of the time.

The traditionally strong opener, in this case the nostalgic but epic “Are You Just Like Me (Spirit of Man)”, is also here but all the passion and dynamics go away with it as there’s next to no life in “Life in Berlin”, a melancholic ballad which is superseded by a string of tepid feelgood rockers (“Turn on the Magic”, “The Best Is Yet to Come”), with bits of cheese and toffee sticking on the sides of the overlong crowd pleaser “Queen of Hollywood”. More ballads (“Thin Disguise”, the lengthy listless “Someone's Watching You”, the lyrical soporifer “Miracle”), more blasé rock anthems (the title-track), and playful bluesy outtakes (“Out of Control”) follow suit making this album the least exciting of the last four, an introspective leisurely-performed vaudeville that possesses no redeeming merits whatsoever.

Hill seems to be the only reason why the Demon-devoted (and not only) audience should stay around longer; the man delivers as usual, his composed deep baritone served with both authority and passion, exonerating this effort to an extent without stretching himself beyond the limits. It’s hard for a musician to do the utmost on a recording of the kind, truth be told; there’s no drama, no tension, no conflict… this is introspective stuff, serene background-providing music which should do the trick in helping one unwind and calm his/her nerves… and would surely extend his/her life by a few more years, delaying his journey to the cemetery. There are no demons to be exorcised anymore, I figure… the post-possession aftermath has come, a meditative lethargic period where time seems to have stopped… at a junction.