MUSIC FOR SHARKS

Usually I'm not really bothered about bands that are called clones of their great examples (mostly Yes or Genesis). In neo prog most lesser known bands are compared to Marillion, Pallas or IQ, the great founders of the subgenre in the eighties. In most cases of being called copy cats I hardly hear it or I don't think it's a big deal. Right here we have an example where the bl**dy limit is reached as far as I'm concerned. In the band description Hibou says that Red Sand is clearly influenced by Marillion without imitating them. Excuse me ?? This is the most terrible case of cloning I've ever heard.

Fish, Steven Rothary, Mick Pointer, Mark Kelly even the compositions are being imitated by this band. It's really not funny anymore. And that coming from me, I can hardly believe that myself but it's all I can hear every time I listen to this album. Especially Simon Caron does his very best to make his guitar playing sound like Rothery, just listen to the opening song Empty Calendar.

Now at least I know and realize what other people go through when they detect cloning and punish an album for that with a low rating. Because in those cases it hardly matters anymore how good the songs are or how good the musicianship is, it's so annoying to listen to a too high grade of derivation. As is the case here with Music for Sharks. I can just squeeze out a 2 star rating for this because just about everything (especially production quality) seems to be ok except for ... Exactly and unfortunately it dominates the whole thing. Too bad.