Reviews

Interview with the band
www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71504

Dead Heroes Club claim to be the sole Irish progressive rock band, and indeed apart from the defunct Horslips, nothing else comes to mind. Their self-titled debut album is also self-produced and -promoted, and represents their "mission to reinvent and rejuvenate prog-rock in a contemporary context". The album kicks off with A Day in the Life of the World, which opens pleasantly enough with clean guitars and piano before introducing Liam Campbell's vocals. Mr Campbell is a dead ringer for Peter Gabriel, and displays a similar range and style to early Genesis, with a definite influence in the lyrics as well. The music here is reminiscent of American neo-proggers Iluvatar. It continues in this fairly inoffensive vein for almost four minutes, before launching into a very early-Genesis passage with Hackett-esque guitars and Hammond. Indeed, this piece would not have been out of place on Foxtrot. Feel the Dark continues the dichotomy. One can't escape the Gabriel comparison, and we're not just talking vocal quality here. Otherwise, it's a lovely tune with some nice riffs. Sunrise on the Trenches, a delightful lyric, has a long introduction in the booklet about the battle of the Somme. Falling from Grace ups the intensity with some more guitars. The middle section here is something Genesis would have done about thirty years ago; since no-one else seems to be doing it any more, I have no objection to Dead Heroes Club doing just that. It's followed by some shorter tracks; The Road to Jerusalem has a nod to IQ in style and One Day Too Soon cuts back on the ever-present rhythm guitars, allowing the song to groove, and it works very well. I'm not sure which band member provides the backing vocals here, but it fits nicely. Third Light is a nice instrumental, leading into the longest piece here, namely the ten-minute A Secret Never To Be Told. Now, I generally like long pieces, provided there's enough variety to sustain the interest, and Dead Heroes Club perform that well by moving through each of the moods found throughout the album. They manage to shake off the Genesis comparisons here for the most part. Dead Heroes Club have done themselves proud with this debut. The album is consistent and offers a good blend of acoustic stylings with the more progressive influences. I would recommend this highly to any fan of the softer side of progressive rock, as well as early Genesis fans. The recent addition of a full-time keyboardist to the band promises more diversity and power for live performances and the next release too, it's an excellent start.
www.dprp.net

...Within the musical composition, the emphasis seems three-fold: melody converging with Campbell's vocals, a healthy dose of keyboards especially reminiscent of old school Hammond organ, and a developed structure combining varied movements and tempos over an often atmospheric and mysterious foundation. Couple this with coherent lyrics and A Time Of Shadow becomes an profound (four of the six songs are over nine minutes long) and enjoyable accomplishment. Stranger in the Looking Glass and a Gathering of Crows are particularly magnificent and representative songs. An attention-deficit crippled generation raised on sound bites may have difficulty with the length of some pieces and may even, erroneously, find them derivative and repetitive. But, as always, this is the challenge of any progressive music when creativity and intelligence merge...
www.dangerdog.com/reviews_2009/dead-heroes-club-a-time-of-shadow-review.php

...The emotion in is voice is palpable giving shivers down my spine every time I play it. My favourite song is the grand "A Time of Shadow" a fifteen minute piece of beautiful melodies, great guitar work, fantastic vocals and the occasional splash of Hammond. The soft intro of piano and keys with Campbell's Fish-like voice setting the mood, paints a somber picture which quickly perks up as the pace quickens. Definitely a Marillion flavour on this one. I absolutely love this CD. Progrock Records have another winner on their hands with A Time Of Shadow. If you like melodic progressive rock this is a no-brainer. Buy it!
www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=8187

...The album is beautifully recorded and produced. One of the strong features of DHC's sound is Liam Campbell's soulful vocals which you simply can't avoid comparing with Peter Gabriel and Fish. It's by no means a bad comparison - impeccable prog credentials! I can hear a lot of Steve Hackett (and a touch of Dave Gilmour) in Gerry's guitar playing but not too much and there is something almost tactile about his many-textured guitar sound. One of the most noticeable changes in DHC's sound has been in the bass. Wilson’s powerhouse bass playing gives an additional dimension which wasn’t there before and combined with Mickey’s drumming the rhythm section could drive a whole column of tanks. The whole sound is tighter, more integrated and blended, and highly polished. It's a testament to Dead Heroes Club that you can see from this site and elsewhere how much their music appeals to fans of all genres including the hard-core metalheads and others who wouldn't normally touch prog-rock with a fumigated ten-foot pole...
www.imarocker.com/reviews/dead%20heroes/site/SHADOW.htm

...My favorite part of A Time of Shadow is the vocals of Liam Campbell. He brings to the table an old school style that modern rock just hasn’t heard from in a long time. His style reminds me of a storyteller with the emotion he displays. Instrumentally, Dead Heroes Club really echo the skills of Liam Campbell with an ensemble style that is whimsical and refreshingly lacking in grandiose guitar solos which has become an all to present hallmark of modern prog rock. A Time of Shadow is the perfect way to hear prog broken down to its essential greatness. Dead Heroes Club, while not being able to stand side by side with the likes of RUSH, can certainly make a statement with their retro, yet innovative take on a type of music that has grown to be too systematic.
allmetalresource.com/2009/11/21/review-dead-heroes-club-a-time-of-shadow-2009

...Yes, Ireland has a progressive rock band of its own and one to be mentioned in the same breath as modern proggers Spock’s Beard, The Flower Kings, Glass Hammer and Porcupine Tree. I absolutely love this album – my favorite of 2009 and a strong contender for my Top 20 progressive rock albums of all time. In fact, I’m adding it to that list..
classicrockmusicblog.com/cds-lps/dead-heroes-club-time-shadow

You don’t hear of many progressive rock bands from Ireland but this is fantastically composed prog and the bands 2nd record. Fans of Marillion and early 70’s Genesis, will for sure enjoy this record. The singer, Liam has an excellent voice and is for sure inspired by FISH. A few of the tracks like "Stranger in the Looking Glass" and "The Sleepers are Waking", really are a bit like a more spacey Marillion. Surprisingly good CD.
www.lowcut.dk/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1011:dead-heroes-club-a-time-of-shadow&catid=29:album-reviews&Itemid=54

Interview with band
www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=3051&lang=nl

Progheads won't find a lot of Opeth or Pain of Salvation here. They shouldn't let that trip them up, though. This is an Irish group that truly knows its stuff. Highly reminiscent of 70s progressive rock, A Time of Shadow will grant its younger listeners access to a time machine, while taking its more seasoned listeners on a joyride through memory lane. The rumbling of the bass leads the way. Hammond organs abound. A voice--strong, characteristic--narrates eloquently and spiritedly. Modern? Not exactly. Good? Quite. What you get here are four full-on adventures, ranging from eight to fifteen minutes in length, as well as two four-minute picnics, if you will--both of which are very good in their own right. On their longer pieces, DHC do a commendable job of creating and releasing tension, building up suspense with just the right amount of synthwork and narration, and culminating cathartically without losing a hint of the melody that underscores every minute. Whether rocking out or taking it slow, Dead Heroes Club deliver quality material.
www.metal-revolution.com/plugins/content/content.php?content.2709

...A Time Of Shadow begins with the “Theatre Of The Absurd.” It’s an impressive start and leads strongly to the exceptional “Stranger In The Looking Glass," which further underscores just how impressive this band can be. It is with material of this undoubted caliber that the band ensures that this work is devoid of even the slightest dip in form. A driving “The Centre Cannot Hold” and the beautifully constructed “The Sleepers Are Waking” both maintain the album's class. As if this wasn’t enough it closes with the magnificent, fifteen-minute epic title track. Stylish and creative, it displays exactly the right degree of well-placed ambition necessary to make them stand tall. Never pompous or overblown, the balance is perfect and is something this band seems capable of pulling off time and again. ..
blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-dead-heroes-club-a

...A Time of Shadow is the follow-up to their first release back in 2004 and is made up of six tracks, four of which are over nine-minutes in length the two remaining compositions are just over four-minutes, so there’s a lot of musicality here. Stylistically Dead Heroes Club blend elements of different eras of Genesis, think Wind and Wuthering or Trick of the Tail with more than a hint of the recent work from Echolyn. Proceedings get under way with “Theatre of the Absurd” [9:20] with an Echolyn-styled fast-paced fusiony guitar/organ riff before settling down to a slower thoughtful Wind and Wuthering feel. The composition goes through a number of musical change-ups but all of these influences are filtered nicely by the band’s own approach giving them a rather distinct sound. That sound is led by Campbell’s vocals which are best described as a more forceful Peter Gabriel without that the raspyness. Track two “Stranger in the Looking Glass” [9:50] starts off soft and flowing with keyboard styled strings and Steve Hackett-styled guitar tones all building to a subtle crescendo at the 1:30 mark at which point the vocals come in to lay the first part’s foundational melody. Don’t expect any searing guitar solos with the music created by Dead Heroes Club, instead you will hear a wonderful mix of acoustic and electric guitar where the solos tend to be muted and even perhaps restrained all the while fitting the feel of the piece without the need to stand-apart. Keyboards as you might expect play a very prominent role either providing layers of atmosphere or one of many solos interplaying with the guitar. A number of times the band develops some absolutely beautiful dramatic musical crescendos that are repeated thematically. The band shows they can rock with “The Centre Cannot Hold” [4:12] which displays the most Echolyn style influence. It’s a brilliant piece that begins powerfully but then closes out in a slower more contemplative mood...
www.jerrylucky.com/reviews%20d-e_018.htm

...The album opens up in fine progging style with Theatre Of The Absurd, which, at 9 minutes and 13 seconds is only the fourth longest track on offer! Prog rocks! And it's a good taster for when the band have in store. Undoubtable prog leanings, over a track reminiscient of Jump in their mellower moments. Indeed, singer Liam Campbell's voice is a cross between Peter Gabriel and Fish with a touch of the John Dexter Jones' thrown in for good measure. The second track is the equally as long Stranger In The Looking Glass, opening up in a wonderful Pink Floyd mode, with Gerry McGerigal's guitar work very much in the David Gilmour style, before breaking into early, bouncy Marillion bass-driven thing delivered by Wilson Graham The shorter and rockier The Centre Cannot Hold follows on, injecting some urgency into the album, but this gives way to A Gathering Of Crows, with it's sampled intro of hate and overtly proggy keyboard riff courtesy of Chris Norby. We played this song on Proggy Style 61 back in July, so you should be familiar with this track, with its powerful lyrics decrying religious fanaticsm on all sides. Eleven and a half minutes of prog pomposity for us all to enjoy!..
www.silhobbit.com/mambo/content/view/535/109

It's a fantastic album like this that makes me realise I have a problem with the term "Neo-Prog". It's a classification which seems, by it's very nature, to define a lesser style of progressive music. This music generally has Genesis as it's primary influence, and yet we do not refer to it as symphonic. To me, it seems as though any band tagged as Neo-Prog might as well be referred to as "Sub-Symphonic". Much of the time, I'll admit, that's pretty close to the truth. On the other hand, this album by Dead Heroes Club really deserves better. This album has elements of true symphonic prog, elements of space rock, and even some prog-folk. It's heavy on the synths at times, sure, and Liam Campbell's voice sounds a hell of a lot like Peter Gabriel's, but that should not relegate this music to (what I consider) the lesser rank of Neo-Prog. The tracks here are all excellent. There is not a track which feels like filler, nor one which overstays its welcome. That last point is an important one. Though there are 4 songs which range from 9 minutes - 15 minutes, they all feel extremely organic. This is to say that the separate parts and instrumental sections flow into one another with confidence and ease. There is none of that different-songs-slapped-together syndrome which plagues so many modern prog bands who attempt at any cost to create an "epic". Rather the contrary; all 4 longer tracks are composed with great skill and care, the sort of care that usually comes from a band with more experience.
www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=302711

...Dead Heroes Club present a full symphonic prog musicality, crearly influenced by the 70’s greats but bringing those references to a modern approach. This easily makes the reviewer draw comparisons to such (time) apart bands as Genesis, Yes, Pavlov Dog, England, Uriah Heep, Rush and Magic Pie, Cryptic Vision and Spocks Beard, to name just a few. The result sounding is, nevertheless, refreshing by its modernity and very much committed to get back to the essentials: provide symphonic music full of emotion and shifts, swifts and time signature changes. Complex architecture never compromising the melodic harmonies. The vocals are quintessential here. They are excellent throughout the whole album, becoming one of the best components in Dead Heroes Club music. Often, music seems to revisit the more naïf sound of Neuschwanstein just to get a fastest tempo right after. Yes, this band does not get stranded on a tempo, rhythm or signature. They just keep on changing direction and approach. The Centre Cannot Hold being the perfect example on the previous sentence while oddly being also an exception, as the band adopts a heavier and more direct playing throughout most of the track, and only changes the tempo and the instrumental direction near the end of the track. This proves a will to experiment in different levels of their musical possibilities. Sometimes harder and simpler, but always keeping that progressive touch, independently of the track format...
www.proggnosis.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=28777