QUEST

Final Conflict is not changing their type of music for their second album.

No great breakthrough, no passionate moments. The music performed on this work doesn't sound any better than on Redress the balance, their average debut album.

Song structure is simple and is based on good guitar work, enjoyable keys but standard melodies. Don't expect anything like the best works of the genre : genuine Marillion and Pendragon were unbeatable in their melodic neo-prog. Final Conflict is just a second division band as far as this genre is concerned.

Some good songs (Old Lady) but nothing else. This band is rather anonymous on this site, but when I looked at their website, I can't really tell that they put a lot of efforts to promote their image efficiently.

Anyway, this album is not bad, but it lacks in good ideas and great tracks. Waiting For A Chance being the poorest here although the band tries to be catchy. But this pop song is not attractive. Same beat all the way down.boring actually.

I am trying hard to discover a great track on this offering. But my quest for such a song remains unsuccessful. Last Act is unfortunately not what it is promising. There will still be two more songs to endure.

But All Alone is the best you can get out of this album. A serious track, finally! At least some fine and melodic work. Not a masterpiece, but far much better than most of the other songs from Quest.

The long Betrial although melancholic, features an upbeat second part. Above average as well. I guess that the band could have shortened dramatically their offering to make it more interesting.

Two stars, which means below average.

The band from Staffordshire did not spent much time between their debut and the sophomore release.With Steve Lipiec replacing Tony Moore on keyboards,Final Conflict entered The Gaolhouse Studios in their town Newcastle under Lyme and recorded the concept album ''Quest'' in 1992.It was their second and final release for the Spanish Gaia Records.

The strong debut ''Redress the balance'' had already set high marks around the band,but at the end ''Quest'' turns into a slight dissapointment.Actually the first two or three tracks are quite good and fairly comparable to the best out of their debut: Imaginative, clean and alternating Neo Prog with AOR/Hard Rock touches,very good vocal ranging from more sensitive to strong lines and of course catchy and melodic guitar work.From now on the album will somewhat fall towards the cliff.Very AOR-based with synths more on the front having a mediocre sound and only a few nice guitar moments and some MARILLION-esque keys will save the tracks,which heavily lean towards good production and energy but less on inspiration and trully memorable material.We will have to wait for the longest and last track ''Betrial'' for some decent stuff again.Here the band show what they are capable of with the atmospheric lyrical intro giving its place to some dynamic guitars and vocals along with the good synth work.

''Quest'' should not be among your major preferences,no matter if you are a fan of Neo Prog or not.Half of the album is rather forgettable and uninspired and the few interesting compositions will appeal to fans of GALAHAD or second phase-PALLAS.Better try some samples before moving to a buy...2.5 stars.

Final Conflict is one of the lesser known neo-prog acts from UK scene from late'80s early '90s with all that they released some ok albums over the years. One of them is Quest issued in 1992, the second release. The music offered are quite standard neo prog, with influences from let's say Marillion but also IQ and quite similar with dutch Egdon Heath or americans Iluvatar who were contemporary with them. Nice guitars interplays with keyboards on the melodic side, nothing is original or mindblowing but decent and well performed also very accesible, at least to my ears. Also the vocal passages are ok most of the time with good lines typical for such music. Some good towards great pieces here like Old lady, Mirror Of Lies or ending Betrial doesn't save the band to be anonymus among prog listners. Well, to me 3 stars for sure. Nice art work