Escape Music continue to crack on with their re-issues of dear old Bob Catley’s solo output.
Following on from The Tower, Legends and Middle Earth, they have now re-issued Bob’s forth album – When Empires Burn. As with the previous three, there is new artwork.
Whereas the first three of Bob’s solo albums were written by Ten’s Gary Hughes, there remains a Ten connection here with When Empires Burn being written by the (then) Ten keyboardist Paul Hodson.
And we have a Magnum presence as Bob’s old Magnum colleague Al Barrow plays bass.
Hodson’s songwriting is superb. This is a much heavier album with a strong symphonic feel to it. Bob seems to enjoy it too with a more powerful vocal style being needed than a typical Magnum song.
Guitarist Vince O’Regan slams in a massive performance with the huge muscular, flowing riffs and shredding for his life. Hodson’s keyboards add the symphonics and atmosphere without going overboard though if I’m being a bit critical, the drums sound a bit low in the mix.
There’s plenty of well placed hooks and melodies amongst the general bombast which highlight the strength of Hodson’s song writing.
A two minute symphonic instrumental leads in to Children of the Circle. Big guitar intro. All nicely heavy and symphonic. Bob’s giving his all with the vocals and O’Regan slams in some roaring guitar work. A proper attention grabber of a song. It’s quite catchy too.
Gonna Live Forever calms it down a little being more of what might be considered a “traditional” melodic rock/ballad type song with a big hook.
Then comes The Prophecy. A glorious, sweeping six and a half minutes of hard hitting symphonic metal with plenty of power and poise. Superb stuff. Here it is:
The title track and Someday Utopia give us more rich heavyness full of the big swelling keys, huge riffs and soloing as the songs scorch along.
My America is another winner. A song of two halves. The celtic style first part will have you thinking of Thin Lizzy. Bob’s vocal is nicely sensitive as befitting the lyrics.
It builds in to the heavy stuff with yet another marvellous slab of O’Regan’s powerful, flowing lead work.
Whilst this is generally a heavy album – there are some lighter moments such as Every Beat of My Heart – which are more akin to say Magnum.
A most fine album of hard hitting, atmospheric and symphonic rock/metal. Good on Escape Music for continuing with their work on re-issuing Bob’s solo work. Wonder if they’ll do Spirit of Man next?
When Empires Burn is overall an album throughout which Paul Hodson proves to be a fine song writer giving Bob Catley a heavier framework to sing around and I think it suits Bob very well.
Physical and digital formats available.
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