Cyrcus Flyght – The Clueless Caravan
Review by David Kerber
In 2012, the then Vigilance members Uwe Fleischhauer and Kai-Uwe Broek decided to found their own prog band. But it took some years until the band from Oldenburg decided to write their own songs and produce an album. Well, 2018, it finally worked and they can offer the metal world a new exciting prog album.
And this starts melodic rocking. “At the end of all time” comes up with great riffs, a catchy chorus and the pleasantly rocking voice of Izzy.
“Finger on the trigger” puts the opener on top of it, and because of the theme of war, it is quite gloomy. With “Endless fall” follows the first of two long tracks and breaks the 9-minute mark. As usual with such long pieces, it begins slowly with keyboard surfaces and acoustic guitar, before it gradually increases and epic riffs are cut out. With the onset of the vocals, the song drifts back into quiet realms and stays in the mid-tempo range until the end.
And because it was so nice, there is the second long track immediately afterwards, but it’s a good two minutes shorter. At the beginning, a little oriental flair spreads, which is soon replaced by straight riffs. But overall, the title did not really convince me and is one of the weaker parts of the album.
“Walk the line” is a groovy instrumental where the musicians can show what’s in them. Goes off like Schmitten’s cat. In the penultimate song “Devil’s Daughter” Izzy is allowed to take part again and unpack her probably best vocal performance of the album. You believe her being the devil’s daughter. In addition, the song attends with a distinctive bass line. Truly devilish.
The bouncer is then again a (short) instrumental, which turns out to be quiet in contrast to the first one. Guitar playing a la Gilmour in his prime meets atmospheric keyboard surfaces. A song to dream.
The two bonus tracks are the first two songs only with German lyrics. But you have to listen carefully to understand the text. The first time it sounds a bit strange, but you get used to it quickly.
Cyrcus Flyght made a very solid debut with The Clueless Caravan. In terms of composition, there is certainly still room for improvement, both in the top and in the width. Because up to the models ELP, Spock’s Bears or Eloy, there is still a lot missing in terms of compositional quality. Nonetheless fans of these bands are welcome to risk an ear here. And Melodic Metal fans are here at the right place anyway.
CYRCUS FLYGHT – Devil’s Daughter 2017 Official Slide-Show-Video: https://youtu.be/iw0Mtx8bCAo
Lineup:
Izzy D’Ambrosia – Vocals
Uwe Fleischhauer – Guitars
Kai-Uwe Broek – Drums
Olaf Gersch – Keyboards
Andreas Bönecke – Bass
Label: Freya Records
Out: May 17th 2018
Duration: 45:43
Track list:
- At The End Of All Time
- Finger On The Trigger
- Endless Fall
- Twilight Of Sin
- Walk The Thin Line
- Devil’s Daughter
- Das erste Geschöpf
Bonus
- Finger am Abzug
- Am Ende der Zeit
Rating : 7/10
MHF Magazine/David Kerber
