HOLD ON

While one would expect that the 88' self-titled CD compilation would give Comedy of Errors the much needed lift to make the breakthrough among the existing 80's Prog acts, instead the band would measure the last years of its original phase.In 1989 founding member and singer Joe Cairney left the band to join the group Fire Brigade and he was replaced by John Cowden.A short effort named ''Hold on'' was recorded in May 89' at the Evenload Studios in East Kilbride and released as an independent cassette.

It's good to see that there is still some flame left in Comedy of Errors, despite knowing that they were and would propably remain an underground group for years to come.Newcomer John Cowden had a slightly AOR-flavored, powerful voice and combined with the displayed style of the band they made a nice set of three pieces with fiery grooves, big time keyboards and blistering riffs.In fact the title-track sounds more like AC-DC and BOSTON, a straightforward piece with focus on cheesy voice tunes and sparkling Hard Rock vibes, pretty representative of what the band was experimenting with at the time.The other two pieces are on the more accesible side of Neo Prog melded with monster Hard Rock/AOR colors, these contain the most sharp guitar work ever to be heard in a Comedy of Errors recording and I even detect a discreet Punk vibe in the metronomic and constant rhythms of ''Free spirit''.The keyboard work though along with some guitar solos are definitely coming out of the classic 80's British Prog tradition, this eventually ended up to be a rather confusing affair for a struggling band.

Mostly a Hard Rock/AOR effort with solid songwriting but no apparent prog content, despite the sincere efforts to come up with some symphonic grandieur in specific moments.Definitely a collector's item and the weakest recording of the band...2.5 stars.