What can I say about Final Conflict? Why this band isn't huge is beyond me. Another full on set with tracks from most of their albums. All delivered with the trade mark FC harmonies, power, craft and poise. Each track from this band has something different, you can't not listen. Special mention to Henry on drums who had to cope with having to almost stand up to play the huge kit spread out in front of him, but he didn't miss a beat and astounded yet another audience with his amazing talent for one so young. It must be good to be surrounded by a bunch of better than average musicians who are all amazingly professional once on stage but who just love playing. A great bunch of people fantastic music. A perfect way to close the afternoon sessions.
Final Conflict released this, their fifth album, in the last days of 2006. This British group, which began its career in the middle eighties, remains faithful to the basic principles that it has practiced since its beginnings: solos of guitar percussion and keyboards, strong melodies, well constructed, with harmonious developments. Simple does not break this rule: neo done with a velvet paw and built around the two guitarist-singers (Andy Lawton and Brian Donkin) and keyboardist Steve Lipiec. This neo is the kind in which the principal protagonists return the ball constantly: how not to think about the first years of Arena, Pendragon or the Marillion?
Nevertheless, this CD is a marked seal of the pain and sorrow for the members of the group since the drummer of Final Conflict, Chris Moyden, died in September 2005, after he had participated in the recording of seven titles of the eight presented here. The CD evidently is dedicated to him. Before this, Simple was for the musicians the most adequate means to celebrate twenty one years of creation of neo progressive music. The opus is composed of rerecorded titles originating from the first albums released on cassette (The following and Channel 8) and of other titles drawn from the first two CDs of the group. From Redress the Balance we rediscover Rebellion and Pangea’s child, off The Quest, All alone). It equally contains new compositions (including the last title: It should have been simple). The impression which dominates is precisely that of an assessment and a brilliant attempt to show all the facets of a proven know-how. European neo prog bands which can count to date more than twenty years of existence while having recorded opus regularly must amount, to the maximum, on the fingers of two hands.
If Final Conflict has arrived at the year 2007, it owes it to the fact of counting in its discography two major pearls of neo-prog, The Quest and Stand Up, in which all its creativity burst. In Simple, the keyboards are at once melodic and progressive, the guitars effective and enchanting, the rhythm section simply top-class and the first track of the CD, the seven minutes of Solitude, is mind-blowing with its long intro, its atmospheric keyboards in weightlessness, the work lavished on the vocals, that takes us towards an acceleration of rhythms and a guitar solo that dear Nick Barrett would have found to his taste. Rebellion keeps the nostalgia of the beginnings of neo with an effective riff, a nervous and involving rhythm just like Channel 8. The Janus takes us towards the delightful shores of Script for a jester’s tears and Chelsea Monday with its laughs up one’s sleeve, its Fish-like inflections of voice. The second pinnacle of Simple is the track that closes the album. “It should have been simple” very certainly will become the new classic of the group. Final Conflict shows us here the whole way traversed for twenty-one years and gives us the proof with ten minutes (forty-six) of their creative capacity. Soft intro with the guitar, old story, sax in abundance, melody in every moment, breaks, solos of all kinds; accelerations; bombastic vocals; riffs; far-away bells, all passes there for our greater happiness.
Simple is not the masterpiece of Final Conflict, it is a boundary, a passage, a sum that announces a new future with a new drummer. By the quality of its compositions and recording, as well as the constant effectiveness of the work of its musicians this new opus, solid and passionate, is a good beautiful album of neo.
Review by Raymond Sérini
Classic Rock magazine review of SIMPLE
Final Conflict - Simple - GAOL CD02
Back in June 1993 five simple blokes from Stoke-on-Trent stepped on the stage at Nightingales in Rotherham to make their CRS debut. Not simple mentally you understand but simple in their outlook, nothing complicated, just make the music, enjoy it and hope that a few punters would like it enough to buy it. Well here is the fourth album some fourteen years later and the outlook remains the same, but this time it’s nice and Simple.
Sadly drummer Chris Moyden passed away at a time when the band were recording the album and looking forward to stepping out on to a stage or two again. The good thing is that Chris can be heard here on all but one track, a nice way to say goodbye. He would be pretty pleased with the end result and for the quintessential British prog-rock fan it will be pleasing too.
As with the three previous albums Andy Lawton and Brian Donkin strike out with some blistering guitar work and blunt and to the point Potteries vocals with Steve Lipiec adding the spicy keyboards and a bit of saxophone too. Dave Alexander came in to add drums on one track so bassist Chris Chalk had little need to strike up a massive new partnership in the engine room, so through all the strife and sad events a Simple album has been born. Those that have managed to see the band live over recent years will recognise the spooky but excellent All Alone. (Available on the CRS Sales List).
Review By Martin Hudson
Prog4U review of HINDSIGHT
When this CD landed in my hot little hands for review I said, "Final Conflict, I know this band." I immediately went to my music collection and there it was, "Stand Up" released way back in 1997 but started in 1991 just before SI Records bought the bullet, so to speak. Hindsight is Final Conflict's 5th release if you count Channel 8, released on cassette in 1987 and Time Has Arrive also on cassette in 1989. Their CD releases are Redress the Balance in 1991, Quest in 1992 and Stand Up released in 1997.
Time warp ahead to 2003 (or 2004 since I'm reviewing it this year). I had listened to "Hindsight" twice before I could actually verify that this was by the same band that made Stand Up. All I can say is that understanding that Stand Up was originally started in 1991 and not released until 1997; the leap in musical ability and sonic quality found in Hindsight is easily understood.
Hindsight is in fact neo-prog at it's finest. Yet, it is different. It does not TRY to be different on purpose. No, it is just different because the band members have matured, their playing ability has improved, and their musical composition has REALLY improved. As I said, my last exposure to Final Conflict (who has now changed their name to simply FC) was Stand Up released in 1997. The music on Hindsight while some what the same as Stand Up is actually totally different. It is definitely like a new band with the same name. Much like Witsend and Syzrgy.
Musically you will hear many of the things we so love about this style called neo-prog. The guitar work, the keyboards, strong and powerful bass and drums. Whew, I love this CD. Both lyrically and musically this CD pushes every one of my buttons. Okay, not my heavy metal buttons but this CD is NOT supposed to do that.
Not only will you not necessarily hear new ideas in this music, you will hear old ideas redone in the most fantastic of ways. Andy and Brian's guitar work will remind you of some of Steve Rothery's licks. You'll hear familiar keyboard work but my goodness it comes across as so fresh and alive that it seems like FC developed this style. Track one opens with an almost techno keyboard type riff hidden specifically in a neo-prog style. Now go figure that. It comes across as if Ozric Tentacles was now doing neo-styled prog.
I think the signature song on this CD is track 4, Dead of Night. The opening guitar line wraps you in a warm wool blanket of understanding (this is the familiar part) with a silk lining of new and exciting pleasures against your skin (this is the new part). All vocals are right on and are never annoying or overly cheesy. None of the songs are long just to be long. In fact I'm finding it hard to listen to anything else over the last couple of days. This one gets my highest rating in months. Honestly, if you have always liked bands like Pendragon, IQ, Clepsydra, Chandelier, and Pallas then you will love this CD. I guarantee it.
Rating: 9.5 of 10
Review by Stephen Ellis
Eclipsed Magazine review of HINDSIGHT
With hindsight everybody is wiser. So, when the English band Final Conflict looked back upon their musical past, they decided to break the silence after seven years - despite the ungracious, British music scene - and to release a new album. At the same time they started fc-music and abbreviated their band name to FC (if puns with football clubs are welcome, the editorial board doesn't know at the moment). Of course, the lyrics on an album with the title "Hindsight" deal with recollections and clean sweep of the past. Still, there is no melancholic atmosphere neither thematically nor sound-wise. It is a very diverse album which proves that FC have their own style. The most proggy song of this album is the title track that clocks up to almost 10 minutes and reminds sometimes of IQ or early Marillion. Something very different is "Shadowdance" with its flute-sounds that comes across as a prancing folkrock-song. Mostly, there are clear structures with catchy choruses and sometimes the vocals are a bit edgy, but the songs never lack atmospheric instrumental parts and playful breaks. Synthesizer-Solos in the vein of Pink Floyd like in "Dead of Night" or the crisp guitar riffs in the opener "Empty Promises" underline the need of existence in every prog collection.
Review by Heike Muller
Classic Rock magazine review of HINDSIGHT
It's been too long since the last album and last visit to the CRS by Stoke's Final Conflict. They remain one of the most underrated prog bands in the UK and the potential is, it appears, still there to be discovered. In the time since they were regular visitors to the CRS the Society has gained many new members. They are another one of those UK prog bands that has the capability to take the rest of the world on within the genre, but I fear the dominance of certain American bands might just hold this back - I hope I'm wrong because they and the album deserve a break.
Andy Lawton and Brian Donkin continue to share the vocals and lead guitars and along with the excellent keyboards of Steve Lipiec (not to mention sax and backing vocals) the colour at the front of their music remains rainbowesque. Behind it all are Chris Chalk on bass and Chris Moyden on drums and they lay a solid base for the long awaited return.
Lovers of Marillion, Pendragon et al will drool over some of this music, especially the title track and others like "Dead of Night" where Lipiec's saxophone becomes a welcome bonus. Give this a listen and you will surely be hooked.
