Just as on his previous two releases, Steve Thorne managed to gather many big names from the prog world to play on Into The Ether. And yet again, despite all talents of Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard), Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) , John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena, Kino), Pete Trewavas (Marillion, Transatlantic, Kino), Gary Chandler (Jadis), John Giblin (Brand X, Peter Gabriel), John Beck (It Bites) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) , Thorne has not been able to produce a fully convincing album. Into The Ether opens promising with the up-tempo song Kings Of Sin that sounds quite heavy and mean with nice solos and singing. However, on the next two tracks, Feathers and Paper Tiger, the music slumps to a murmuring sound that can be described best as ‘musical wallpaper’. The album revives in tracks like Into The Ether and Victims, but they cannot hide the fact that Thorne is a better musician rather than a composer and singer. In contrast to Emotional Creatures, parts 1 & 2, he has learned to write better up-tempo songs, but the slower ones are just a dime a dozen. For his next album, I suggest that Thorne cooperates with other songwriters and with some real good singers so that not all the talents Thorne somehow manages to collect go to waste. ** André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
