AFTER THE BATTLE

The album "After The Battle" is a strong progrock album, at an almost un-Dutch professional level! After many rehearsals PLACKBAND re-recorded their best material and some new songs, including a few instrumentals. The CD showcases the skills of Ronald Brautigam (beautiful twanging guitars and volume pedal along exciting fiery solos) and Michel van Wassem (from sumptuous choir-Mellotron till nice synth flights and swinging clavinet), supported by the impressive Moog Taurus bass pedals and a solid rhythm-section. "After The Battle" is a real treat for the mid-GENESIS fans. In fact, this album should have been released in the late Seventies but 'better now than never'!

Altough "After The Battle" is a nice album, I disagree with 5 stars reviews because IMHO it's far from a masterpiece. PLACKBAND sounds to my ears as a good neo progressive band, but full of neo cliches and with notorious MARILLION -era Fish- similarities (in fact, one of the best tracks -the emotive "Sign of the Knife"- seems to be extracted from MARILLION "Script...", and the vocalist seems to sing like Fish).

Beyond the above mentioned song, another high point is the second homonymous track, with the Mellotron strong presence. Precisely, the use of this beloved prog symbol makes a positive difference between PLACKBAND and most of neo prog bands, but it isn't enough to build a great piece of art.

The rest of "After The Battle" is conventional (but nice) neo prog, even with some commercial hints. A good album, very interesting mainly for MARILLION fans, but nothing special.

Plackband has had a strange journey since their debut. It must be one of the first neo-prog band in the world I guess, since they started in the mid seventies to play their music but never released any album in their early days.

But to read that this album is considered as a masterpiece by several reviewers is rather unexpected for me. First of all, this album contains three songs of a previous compilation "The Lost Tapes". So, we get half of lost "Lost Tapes" again served on this release. I wonder whatever masterpiece resulted of such a treatment!!

The intro of "After The Battle" is based on "The Apocalypse" part of "Supper's Ready", sounding as if Banks would sit on the background and play with the band with some harder attack solo (like in "Slippermen" or "In The Cage"). As soon as the vocals enter the scene (around the third minute), the listener starts a YesJourney but with very much less feeling. This song is drawn from the roots of these two bands but it really falls short. Only a long and not very inspired song.

During "See The Dwarf", we are transported from the "Wind & Wuthering" sessions to the genuine "Marillion" work. So typical Rothery guitar sounds.This song is also a disappointment since it quickly turns out to be pop oriented. I admit that there will be some good keyboard parts, but nothing from the outer space.

"End Of The Line" is the first of the three songs already released. Take the beat of "Squonk" and the closing of "Entangled" which is included during the middle part and you'll get the picture. Not bad but not original for a ? cent.

The very short instrumental brings us into "Stagnation" ("Trespass") for almost a minute. Very pleasant but short and not personal.

This album is a deception for me. I have seen the band live recently (October 2007) as opening act for "The Musical Box" in Amsterdam. Their short set (half an hour) was pleasant and I was looking forward to discover more music from the band but when you listen to "Ghost" which is the weakest song here, you can just press next.

Would you like some "Cinema Show" sounds ? Just listen to "The Hunchback" (the second song already featured on "Lost Tapes". I guess that by now, they found them back.).

Let's face the truth : this is not a great (even not a good) album. The best song out of it is "Sign Of The Knife". Can you believe that it doesn't as "The Knife ? It was already my favourite number on "Lost Tapes". Forget about the bonus tracks and there is only one rating I can think of. Two stars.

I must have listened to a different album than most of the reviewers here. But I don't think so.

PLACKBAND formed in 1977 and had some success in their home country of The Netherlands but broke up in 1982. They reformed in 1999 and released this particular album "After The Battle".

"The Battle" opens with gentle guitar and synths before the music stops and we can hear the sounds of war going on. Drums and synths start to take over, and we get some nice guitar 2 1/2 minutes in. More sounds of a battle to end it. "After The Battle" is the longest track at 11 minutes. Synths build as raw guitar melodies take over until we have a full sound. Synths are prominant. This sounds really good actually. Mellotron samples after 2 1/2 minutes. Vocals arrive for the first time on the record 3 minutes in. Guitar solo 6 1/2 minutes in. Lots of mellotron after 10 minutes as the sound gets heavier, but the most mellotron rolls in to end the song. "See The Dwarf" opens with drums and synths. Guitar after a minute as drums and vocals follow. More synths later. "Sleeping Warriors" sounds like orchestral sounds and synths. "End Of The Line" features nice solid drumming throughout. Vocals a minute in. Mellotron after 3 minutes and the guitar that follows sounds great. Some crazy synths to end it.

"Death And Lost Glory" is less then a minute of what sounds like flute, gentle guitar and synths. "Ghost Town" opens with a catchy synth / drum melody. Vocals then mellotron that comes and goes. "The Hunchback" is my favourite track on here. It's a pleasant, mid-paced tune with vocals, drums and synths standing out. Bass 3 minutes in is prominant. Mellotron before 6 minutes. Piano comes in as the melody changes a little. Guitar before 8 minutes. Passionate vocals and mellotron end it. "Sign Of The Knife" features more orchestration early. Great sound 1 1/2 minutes in as the guitar lets go. Synths then take over as the bass throbs. It gets a little heavy after 5 minutes. "There Come The Warlords" is mellow to begin with. Some orchestration follows. A heavy beat takes over as synths join in. Marching style drums to end it.

I should mention that Andy from PlanetMellotron believes the mellotron on this record are samples. The orchestration passages I believe are also samples. Good album, but nothing special.

''The Lost Tapes'' was just the initial flame for the absolute Plackband reunion.After 18 years the original crew of Bik, Brautigam, De Keijzer, Van Wassem and Van Der Meulen got back together with the official return date being the concert of the 23th June 2000 at "de Boerderij" in Zoetermeer.After negotiations with four different companies Plackband secured a deal with the Xymphonia label and released the single ''Remember forever'' in 2002, followed soon after by their fist ever full-length album of the group, ''After the battle'', recorded at Holland Spoor Studios in The Hague.

Always attracted by the vintage GENESIS sound, Plackband offer a nice, melodic and fully symphonic-oriented Progressive Rock, highlighted by the changing modern and analog keyboards and the harmonic approach of the group.They do sound extremely similar to compatriots US, filling their style with warm vocal lines and both dramatic and softer instrumental textures.The band was not afraid anymore to produce proggy and long compositions with a fair amount of Mellotrons thrown in and of course the needed contemporary sound of synthesizers.The guitars remain slightly in the background, delivering both light electric and more atmospheric, acoustic themes, somewhat in an 80's Neo Prog vein, and the arrangements in general lack GENESIS' unparalleled richness, yet they are always in the right direction.The work of Michel Van Wassem is however absolutely satisfying, leading the music to beautiful, symphonic grounds with plenty of grandiose plays and orchestral passages.

The dream became true for Plackband, 25 years after their starting step.Old-school GENESIS-like Symphonic Rock with bits of more modern stylings, which has nothing new to add in a saturated scene, but it is played with passion and talent.Recommended.

I got the After The Battle CD because I heard some nice things about this dutch band. It seems they were one of the first "neo prog" bands ever, that never officially recorded anything during their time and got back in the early 2000s with this album featuring both new and old material. I really had never heard of them until very recently, but being from Holland meant the strong possibility of high quality material. And I was not disappointed. The album shows a very tight band producing what we may call "classic" neo prog music that has an undeniable early 80´s flavor on it.

After The Battle has a little over an hour of excellent prog music that takes more than one or two spins to really figure out what they´re all about. The songs remind me a lot of british bands of that period like Abel Ganz, Twelfth Night, IQ or Pallas. Not as symphonic or readily accessible as Marillion or Pendragon, but very good anyway. So you get nice keyboards/guitar interplay, a dramatic singer (Kees Bik has a fine voice) and a brilliant rhythm section. The songs are all very good, with a evenly flow throughout the whole CD., There are several highlights, but if you want something really special I guess the 9 minute The Hunchback is probably the best of them. This symphonic piece of music (with obvious early Genesis overtones) has all the elements that make me love this kind of music: melodic, varied, emotional and full of great variations without missing the basic elements that binds it all together in one fine prog gem.

The production is only adequate, but it adds to the charming "old style" of their compositions in a way. The performances are impeccable and the high quality of the songwriting makes the listening of this CD a highly enjoyable experience. Nothing new or groundbreaking, of course, but very good in what they do. According to my friend and writer Erik Neuteboom the band has recently got back together, playing live and recording a new album due to be out soon. I´m really looking forward to listen to it!

Conclusion: if you like the 80´s neo prog scene you can´t miss this one! And if you like good prog music in general you should give it a try. A very nice finding. 4 stars.