HINDSIGHT

It's good to see Final Conflict back with the album Hindsight after such a long break. They still have the haunting guitar and keyboard solos; with strong melodies and well constructed and developed songs. The addition of driving bass and drums and creative vocal harmonies give this album a professional and modern feel with real edge.

This is a Prog Rock album, but within this heading, the song mix is varied. From the rocky "Can't buy experience" to the magical and delicate "Shadowdance" the band show an ability to create a kaleidoscope of musical textures. The powerful and hard-hitting "Hindsight" deserves the honour of being the title track and "Heart and Soul" provides the inevitable but sumptuous epic ending to the album.

Final Conflict have improved with every album to date. If you only buy one album this year, do yourself a favour and make it Hindsight by Final Conflict.

A long six years break for Final Conflict to produce this album. I really wonder what they have done in the meantime. Because this album is far from being great, I'm afraid...

Search for inspiration? Not really!

Quest for outstanding song writing? I don't think so.

A deep look to more profound and original music? Not even close!

This is another average album form this band. One of the highlight is "Hindsight". Although it fully starts as a genuine "Marillion" song ("The Party"), it holds some fine melody and emotional guitar work towards the end of this lengthy track.

Most of this album is just a kaleidoscope of other band's music and does not leave a footprint of originality. Just listen to the Floydian intro for "Dead Of Night" and its very predictable music. Not bad of course, but so soul less.

Some songs are worth a spin, but not too many. The upbeat "Can't Buy Experience" certainly belongs to these ones. Heavier and more aggressive, it features some catchy vocal melodies and powerful guitar. One of the two highlights. The folkish" Shadowdance" is also one of the good numbers from this album.

If you would ever get a neo-prog verson of Kashmir, I can only recommend Choices. But I guess that very few of us needs such a song. At the end of the day, only Heart & Soul is really worth. Above average melody and vibrant guitar. One is finally rewarded to have listened to so much uninspired music. This is an excellent song. The one and only, unfortunately.

Two stars for this average album.

Final Conflict did not avoid another long gap between the third and fourth album.Apparently tired of chasing labels and searching for a new contract, they invested on their own Gaolhouse Studio and decided to establish their own recording label for promoting their albums.''Hindsight'' would be the first in line of FC albums to follow on Gaolhouse label, it was released at the fall of 2003.

Inbetween the new incidents Final Conflict also decided to take a long trip to the past and revisit their very early days, when their material had still a rockin' touch, but was simultaneously based on the principles of MARILLION and the likes.As a result ''Hindsight'' features a more elaborate and melodic sound, always based on supertight songwriting and rich guitar and keyboard backgrounds, the material reminds me a lot of the lyrical songs of Fish-era MARILLION, albeit with a slightly harder touch.They tend to even plagiarize some of the masters' tunes from the 83'-85' period with the flashy and dreamy keyboard interludes, the light guitar moves and the strong lyricism, but the rise of the electric guitars and the overall dynamics are definitely trademarks of Final Conflict.''Hindsight'' appears to be one of the most balanced albums of Final Conflict, keyboards play a dominant role now and the furious electric solos are sitting next to them in a bunch of well-composed and -executed, long tracks with some minor symphonic touches and the always playful style of British Neo Prog.There are even some laid-back, almost spacious keyboard themes included and, despite the limited room for extended instrumental work, the album flows quite nicely in a convincing and grandiose musical enviroment.

One of the Final Conflict albums you should track down.Marking a new era for the band, ''Hindsight'' has this unmistakable MARILLION-esque magical touch and comes as a warmly recommended album for all those into song-based still intricate Prog Rock.