RAINDANCE

I'm not a fan of this band at all and I think that Red Queen To Gryphon Three is very overrated on this site. However, I do rate the much underrated Treason album with four stars, definitely my favourite Gryphon album. Compared to Red Queen To Gryphon Three, Raindance is a bit more rock influenced and, indeed, I would say that Raindance is Gryphon's first Prog rock album! The first three not really being Prog at all in my opinion.

You might think that, since I like Treason so much, which was an even rockier album than Raindance, I should like this one too. Well, as a matter fact I don't, very much. This album is very uneven and the material is rather weak. Apart from the Beatles cover, which is nice, but no more. Wallbanger is the first track on this album to even grab my attention. It sounds good, but nothing remarkable.

(Ein Klein) Heldenleben is better compositionally than anything from Red Queen To Gryphon Three or Midnight Mushrumps. It is also the best and only memorable track on this album. It is enjoyable to listen to, but a masterpiece it is not. They might have been a bit influenced by Yes at this time, but this is far away from Yes in both style and quality. Don't get me wrong, they are excellent musicians, and all the instruments are very well played, but the composition is really not that strong.

It seems to me that Gryphon did not have many good musical ideas at this point. Most of the compositions are rather second rate and they are not as experimental as earlier albums, for better or worse. But don't let this album deter you from checking out the much better Treason album, where they finally made a good album.

Uneven, but with some good moments.