ALONE (E)

It’s been a while since Antares, the progressive metal band from Groningen (the Netherlands) released Chokin' The Stone. Antares is no more, but singer-songwriter and former lead guitarist Han Uil is alive and kickin' and Alone is proof of his abilities to write, play, sing and produce a couple of nice tunes. However, in spite of the help of some ex-members of Antares, there's no metal and hardly any progressive music in this offering. If one realises that his influences are amongst others Peter Hammill - that's obvious when you hear him singing - Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Neil Young (The Boy), you can also imagine what the music sounds like. A bit of rock, a bit of blues in Alone On The Rack, but most of all rather poppy tunes, definitely in the singer-songwriter genre. Because Han Uil uses a wide spectrum of guitar sounds, the moods change with every song. Still most of the tunes are slow and sound a bit sad or melancholic like the aforementioned track The Boy or the instrumental Silvia, which seemed to be influenced by Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues) and the semi-acoustic track Loneliness. Only The Sad And Rusty Flute sounds a bit more cheerful and show some influences by Jethro Tull. Personally I don’t recognize a distinctive style on this album and since my expertise is more in the field of progressive (metal) or AOR-genre, this album doesn’t blow me away, although it’s well played and produced and has a nice feel to it.