VITAL

The second (and much longer) VdGG hiatus was heralded by this live album, which presents the Van der Graaf lineup (plus the guest starring David Jackson) in a raw, angry, noisy, furious performance from the Quiet Zone tour. Presenting a mixture of material from that album, reconfigured older songs (on which Graham Smith's violin works surprisingly well), and a few tracks original to this release, this album is best experienced either as the original LP set or as the 2005 2CD remaster - previous CD editions having omitted tracks. It's aggressive, brutal and right at the progressive cutting edge, a living reminder that VdGG were always the darkest and most sinister of the major British prog bands, and what better way to herald the end of the golden age of prog with a raucous performance of Nadir's Big Chance as an encore?