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The Flock Heaven Bound: The Lost Album Review by Gary Hill I’d always heard of these guys as a fusion act, but this is a lot more straight rock music. That said, there’s enough progressive rock and fusion in the mix to land this here. Apparently this was intended to be the band’s fourth album, but until now it was never released. There is a lot of great stuff here, really. It’s certainly worth having. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Heaven Bound This powers in with a great rocking sound that makes me think of Max Webster a bit. That sound, with some symphonic overlayers continues throughout the piece. This is high energy and very cool.

The Bells This is a short instrumental piece. It’s got a bit of symphonic edge to it.

Reasons There’s a more dreamy kind of vibe to this one. It makes me think of Todd Rundgren in a lot of ways, too. Yet, there are things that make me think of Captain Beyond, too.

Crying Out / The Voice Atmospheric waves of sound make up this with some bits of voice over it. It’s quite spacey. It’s fairly short.

Don't You Know (Who I Am) Unaccompanied voice start this off. After a short time a fast paced riff fires out and this has a real prog rock variant on that Max Webster like sound.

Makes It All Worthwhile A jazzy space rock sound is the concept here. This is one of the most accessible pieces here. It’s also one of the best. I just love the groove on this.

Noise Boys Here’s a hard rocker that’s a lot more mainstream. It feels a little rough in terms of production.

Mama A real oddity, this is very much a country song.

Rolling With the Clones Here we get a powerhouse proggy rocker. The horns bring some hints of jazz when they play.

Love Away This number is more proggy than a lot of the other stuff here. I like it a lot. It does make me think of Max Webster quite a bit, though.

C'mon Let's Walk A mellower piece, this has a lot of jazz and prog in the mix.

Be Strong and Survive I love this killer progressive rock tune. It’s one of the most blatantly prog things here. It’s also pretty mainstream. The strings lend an almost ELO kind of sound, but it doesn’t sound like that band, really. This is one of my favorites here.

The Christos Jig Based on the title I would have expected a very Celtic sounding thing. Instead, this is a killer hard edged prog number. The violin brings a bit of that Celtic thing, but the multilayered vocal arrangement is pure rock. The instrumental section later in the piece is pure prog in some many ways.

The Test The violin lends some different flavors. Beyond that, this is a pretty straightforward rocker. Still, it has plenty of progressive rock in the mix. I love the bass line on the jam mid-track. That whole jam, though, is particularly cool.

Outroduction Atmospheric and a little strange, this is also very cool.The violin and keyboards lend an otherworldly, proggy sound.

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