GALLEONS OF PASSION

There were many ways for a prog rock band to end their career in the late '70s: turn to AOR, go mainstream, start writing more pop-oriented material that might not endear them to their old fans (but few wanted to latch on to the punk scene). Luckily FINCH refused to fall in to the punk/disco/AOR trap that brought down many prog bands at that time. No longer recording for Negrum, FINCH was now recording for Ariola (actually a division called Bubble Records), with two new guys. With keyboardist Cleem Determeijer and drummer Beer Klaase out of the picture, the band brought in Ad Wammes for keyboards and Hans Bosboom for drums.

Here the band was going for a more conventional prog rock direction, mostly avoiding jams, as demonstrated on "Unspoken is the Word" and "Remembering the Future". "With Love as the Motive" starts off a bit experimental before going on to some great guitar riffs, before ending up in that dreaded "Beyond the Bizarre" (from "Beyond Expression") territory by being rather cheesy. The final cut, "Reconciling" totally blew me away! Without a doubt, the band harking back to the best moments of "Glory of the Inner Force", with some intense passages. This is where the band really gets jamming, something they hadn't really done on the rest of the album. Musically, there's no getting around the fact that this is 1977 (that is, the 1977 for those who refused to acknowledge punk rock existed), as the string synths are quite dominant here, with that spacy feel on some of the cuts. Good album, but nothing beats "Glory of the Inner Force".