TotW 02/27/2023 - 03/05/2023: STEVE HACKETT - The Devil's Cathedral

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    Your rating for "The Devil's Cathedral" by STEVE HACKETT 18

    1. 15 points - outstanding (0) 0%
    2. 14 points - very good (3) 17%
    3. 13 points - very good - (0) 0%
    4. 12 points - good + (0) 0%
    5. 11 points - good (3) 17%
    6. 10 points - good - (1) 6%
    7. 09 points - satisfactory + (2) 11%
    8. 08 points - satisfactory (0) 0%
    9. 07 points - satisfactory - (3) 17%
    10. 06 points - sufficient + (2) 11%
    11. 05 points - sufficient (1) 6%
    12. 04 points - sufficient - (1) 6%
    13. 03 points - poor + (1) 6%
    14. 02 points - poor (1) 6%
    15. 01 point - poor - (0) 0%
    16. 00 points - abysmal (0) 0%

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    STEVE HACKETT - The Devil's Cathedral
    Year: 2021
    Album: Surrender Of Silence
    Working title: unknown
    Credits: Hackett, King
    Lyrics: Yes
    Length: 6:31
    Musicians: Steve Hackett, Roger King, Nad Sylvan, Craig Blundell, Jonas Reingold, Christine Townsend, Rob Townsend
    Played Live: 2021, 2022
    Cover versions:

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    Notes:
    From our review: The song title justifies the use of an opulent church organ sound in the intro. The opener is followed by a straight rock theme, a successful verse melody and solid drumming by Craig Blundell. Then follows an almost exaggerated orchestral excursion before the tempo is picked up. The original theme has been abandoned altogether and so Nad's re-introduced vocal is a completely different melody. Basically, this piece is a flawless forecast number, compactly presented in six and a half minutes. As such, the piece works very well. But: One would have liked to hear a pure song version of it. The melody is great up to the middle part! However, Steve has once again covered himself with this piece. The passage from about 2:55 onwards is pretty much identical to the passage from 3:18 onwards on the GTR piece Imagining.

    cheers

    Christian


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    Good. One of the more successful modern Steve tracks which is able to stand out from a very samey crowd by virtue of the opening verses and some nice dark humour. It then loses itself in the instrumental passages a bit but these do follow some patterns which stick in the memory after a few listens. Nad sings well, the deeper tones bringing out the character in his voice. It worked very well live and the organ sound and general over the top chaos made sense. In that respect a bit like Watcher. The difference being that Watcher is an outstanding track on record and even better live. This one is a good track on record that becomes very good live.

    The verses are my favorite part of the song. I certainly don't have anything against lengthy instrumental parts, but this song is one case where I would have liked more vocal parts and less of the instrumental meandering.

    I didn't know this so listened to it just now. I approach all his stuff of the last 10 years or so with trepidation as I rarely like any of it and sadly this is no different. Terrible noodling intro sounding like a mash-up of the Abominable Dr Phibes and Soft Machine having a bad day, followed by some standard rock slop of the kind he's done way too much of. The bits where it sounds a little like a re-hash of Slogans work best.

    Abandon all reason

    That's really not for me. Very small parts work, but overall... I'm afraid Steve's solo work is just missing that secret sauce. I find it all lacking a certain character that Genesis seemed to have no matter what they did.


    It's a little surprising too. Back when I was getting into Genesis and before I'd heard much or any of the solo work, if you'd asked me to guess which members' work I'd like the most, I would have said Steve's. I really liked the "in-between" phase of 76-77, more than the others initially. I still love that music of course but with time I've gained much more appreciation for the music that came before and after, and Steve's music outside the band has never resonated with me. I'd go so far as to say I prefer all four of the other principal members' music, and I'm fairly certain if I give Ray's music a chance I'd prefer that too. Maybe Ant, although I haven't heard much and I'm not a big fan of the more pastoral music.

    This doesn't connect with me, but I've never really connected with any of Steve's solo stuff, other than bits of SM and Voyage.


    Technically very impressive I'm sure, but totally lacking in heart in my opinion.


    As a general point, I don't really rate any of Steve or Mike's solo work. And very little of Tony's (I like the Fugitive and that's it).


    And yet put them together and they made something sublime.

    hmm. Not really my cup of tea. It sounds promising and then it gets lost somehow. For me, Steve has always been a great guitarists who can create unique atmospheres, but he's not a good songwriter.

    6/15