Life immediately after Shy for Tony Mills was trying to become a Geoff Tate sound alike with the band Siam.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Siam
ALBUM: The Language Of Menace
LABEL: Now And Then
SERIAL: NTHEN 11
YEAR: 1994
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England
LINEUP: Tony Mills – vocals * Chris Ward-Evans – guitars * Darren Horton – guitars * Andy Faulkner – bass * Pano Moullaris – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 The Language Of Menace * 02 Open Your Eyes * 03 Signals Of Intuition * 04 Midnight Connection * 05 It Ain’t Easy * 06 The Search * 07 Cato Street * 08 The Fall * 09 So Wild Is Our World * 10 Nightflight To Heaven * 11 The Last Sunrise
Background
Life immediately after Shy for Tony Mills was trying to become a Geoff Tate sound alike with the band Siam. Despite the obvious references to Queensryche, this is bloody good actually.
Working alongside him are a cluster of ‘not so obvious’ musicians who become the band Siam, it’s a hard collection of tracks which sees an amalgam of Queensryche and fellow UK rockers Ten, though probably without the finesse of either of those two bands.
Despite that, it stands head and shoulders above a lot of albums from 1994, but as in all things which Mills sings on, you’ll either love his voice or hate it. Thankfully I’m in the former category, so he’s let off the hook somewhat.
The Songs
Opening up with the title track ‘The Language Of Menace’, I was transported back to ‘Rage For Order’ era Queensryche. The socialist type lyrics make for a good read. Continuing on in that vein are the tracks ‘Cato Street’ which segues into ‘The Fall’, all about opression of the people and the power of freedom and independence, very deep.
Siam put the foot down to the floor with the hard rockin’ ‘The Search’, which musically is a cross between between Judas Priest and PC 69. ‘It Ain’t Easy’ has a Thunder-esque sound, with chant-a-long moments and a rock-blues theme. The closest comparison to his previous outfit Shy would be the powerful ‘Midnight Connection’, a soaring chorus straight off ‘Brave The Storm’.
A contender for the albums best moment would be ‘Nightflight To Heaven’, complete with stiring guitar lines and a memorable chorus. Elsewhere, the staggered approach of ‘Signals Of Intuition’ and the flowing melodies of ‘The Last Sunrise’ round out what is a very good album.
In Summary
Siam followed this up with the equally effective ‘Prayer’, and beyond that, Mills has done additional albums with the reformed Shy, plus his new solo effort during 2002 called ‘Cruiser’ on Z Records. As we all know he rejoined Shy for their excellent 2005 album ‘Sunset And Vine’, before hooking up as the replacement for Tony Harnell in TNT.
Siam on Video
The Language Of Menace
