(2020) The New Empire - Second Lifetime
Review:
The New Empire resurrects the band Empire and features a new line-up of Empire member Mark Murdock, Fernando Perdomo and Marisol Koss. Empire was originally founded by Peter Banks and Sydney Foxx, the latter making a new guest appearance on lead vocals on the re-recording of Foundation. The album also features guest appearances from Dave Kerzner, Julianne Spicer and Dennis Atlas. The album features both new original songs and re-recordings of tracks by Empire, Flash, Peter Banks and one Yes track. Second Lifetime acts to both establish The New Empire and pay tribute to the late Peter Banks. The New Empire, featuring guitarist Fernando Perdomo, have released a video for their brand new single Life After Life. “Life After Life is a blistering prog instrumental written in the style of Peter Banks mid 70s output,” enthuses Perdomo. “Our friend Dave Kerzner plays a searing synth solo in the end signifying a turbulent ascent to the afterlife. The video directed by Cyndi Trissel takes you on an out of body experience.” The trio, who also feature vocalist Marisol Koss and drummer Mark Murdoch a modern continuation of former Yes guitarist Peter Banks’ band Empire, the band he formed in 1973 with wife Sidney Foxx following the demise of Flash. The band recorded three albums in the 70s, featuring contributions from Phil Collins, Brand X’s John Giblin and Kate Bush drummer Preston Hayman. The albums eventually saw the light of day in the 90s.
Tracklist:
01. The New Empire Overture (3:05)
02. Lost in Time (5:51)
03. Knights of the New Empire (3:25)
04. Slow Burn Rising (5:12)
05. The Journey of Mankind (4:03)
06. Life After Life (3:36)
07. Better Not To (4:12)
08. Out of our Hands (7:52)
09. Foundation (8:10)
10. Sky at Night (8:48)
11. Looking Around (3:52)
12. Another Lifetime (4:22)
13. This is Not A Dream (5:21)
14. Faraway Friend (A Tribute to Peter Banks) (4:46)
Media Report:
Genre: prog-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits