{"id":715,"date":"2015-10-26T16:36:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T16:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.progradar.org\/?p=715"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:47:51","slug":"review-hillward-flies-in-amber-stones-by-stephen-bowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progradar.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/10\/26\/review-hillward-flies-in-amber-stones-by-stephen-bowden\/","title":{"rendered":"Review – Hillward – Flies In Amber Stones – by Stephen Bowden"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This Canadian trio (David Lizotte<\/strong> on guitars and vocals, Jean-Fran ois<\/strong> Boudreault<\/strong> on Bass and Antoine Guertin<\/strong> on drums) started life as a side project of Qu?becois progressive power metallers Southern Cross<\/strong> (no, me neither). ‘Flies Trapped in Amber Stones’ is their debut album.<\/p>\n

Right from the crunching guitar chords that kick in near the start of the opening (title) track you know you\u2019re listening to a band that can play their instruments more than competently, and who work together tightly. The sound is guitar driven, but the core sound is supplemented by keyboards at just the right moments to provide a richer sound palette. The short guitar solo in the second track, Alive<\/strong>, is placed just where you want it, and it doesn\u2019t outstay its welcome.<\/p>\n

So why am I not in raptures about this album? I think it may be that, in pursuit of the technical and musical competence that Hillward<\/strong> bring to their music, they have forgotten, or perhaps simply suppressed, their hearts and souls. The third track, One Goodbye<\/strong> is a quieter, more contemplative track, but it is so, so predictable. From the first listen I felt I could predict every move it made, and six or seven spins later it hasn\u2019t yielded up any more depth or richness.<\/p>\n

As song follows song, you realise that the band are ploughing a narrow musical furrow. Lizotte\u2019s voice is clear and in tune, but has limited range, both in terms of octaves and emotions. I\u2019m not sure what I should be feeling as I listen to The Missing Link<\/strong>, but I don\u2019t think that the band\u2019s intention was that I should feel that I\u2019d heard this all already on this album, and was likely to hear it again in a few songs time.<\/p>\n

And then there are the lyrics. The fifth track Entropy<\/strong> is absolved from criticism on this point, as it is a two minute instrumental which feels like some riffage that coudn\u2019t be fitted into a proper song, but, elsewhere the lyrics are somewhat uninspiring; the songs don\u2019t come across as being about anything important.<\/p>\n

The longest song on the album, When it All Comes True<\/strong> (all six and a half minutes of it) might as well be The Missing Link<\/strong> or Alive<\/strong> all over again, here Lizotte asks does life mean more than words do, silly words learned and repeated too? Does tragedy mean more than poetry? Then, in Quiescence<\/strong>, another slower, moodier track he asks what if we never cross the line, what if we never grow old on time, what is love if it keeps us apart? The short instrumental that follows, Quantify the Abstract,<\/strong> does little to answer any of these questions, but I\u2019m not sure that I ever cared.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I am sounding too negative here. I certainly don\u2019t dislike this album, and the penultimate track, Walls of Apathy<\/strong>, is really rather good, at least in part because it introduces another voice, that of Melanie Gagn <\/strong> from fellow Qu?becois band, Muted Screams<\/strong>. Gagn adds the layers of emotion and aural variety that have been lacking in the earlier tracks.<\/p>\n

Yet Hillward are playing in the same musical territory as, say, Haken<\/strong> and Anekdoten<\/strong>, and not far from Riverside<\/strong>. ‘Flies in Amber Stones’, for all its undoubted strengths, offers me no reason to listen to it rather than ‘The Mountain’ or ‘Until All The Ghosts Are Gone’.<\/p>\n

The album closes strongly with The End of Logic<\/strong>, and perhaps there is some good advice in the title. ‘Flies in Amber Stones’ sounds just too much as if it had been written to a formula. Hillward<\/strong> are technically excellent. Perhaps they just need to throw off the creative shackles they appear to be labouring under and find some ideas and emotions to invest in their song-writing and playing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if there isn\u2019t precedent here. I can think of at least one other Canadian trio who followed a competent but routine debut with more than forty years of greatness…….<\/p>\n

Released 25th September 2015<\/p>\n

Buy Flies In amber Stones from bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n