Castle Us
2005
Strange New Flesh
About This Album
Several years after the original art rock supergroup Colosseum disbanded, drummer Jon Hiseman formed Colosseum II, a more jazz fusion-oriented outfit featuring guitarist Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy) and keyboardist Don Airey. Their eclectic debut, Strange New Flesh, shows some impressive chops from all involved, even as it touches all of the bases essential to mid-'70s progressive rock -- including bravura keyboard flourishes and long, singing lead guitar lines -- with an emphasis on Moore's soulful guitar leads. Vocalist Mike Starrs, while not an immensely engaging singer, does a nice job keeping up with Hiseman and bass player Neil Murray -- the group had at least one foot firmly in the Yes/Emerson, Lake & Palmer school of art rock, mixing lyrical, classically inspired melodies and high-wattage amplification on the synthesizers and guitar -- and Starrs' range at times leaped up from Greg Lake's deep tenor range to somewhere near Jon Anderson's territory. Yet the most obvious influence on the debut album came out of the jazz world, and the work of John McLaughlin and the original Mahavishnu Orchestra -- close your eyes, shut off your memory of who you are listening to, and it's easy to find yourself thinking that the guitar and bass parts, and even elements of the drumming, are lifted out of Inner Mounting Flame and, to a lesser degree, Birds of Fire -- and this is not a bad thing, because Moore, Murray, Airey, and Hiseman are more than sufficiently virtuosic in their playing to pull it off.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 2 and 3)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 5,8 and 9)

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