Alliance

When Damon Edge and Helios Creed parted ways in 1984, Edge decided to keep Chrome, the band he and Creed had led for nearly a decade, alive and recast their sound to synth-heavy psychedelia. Additionally, he decided to release albums under his own name. Alliance, his first solo album, is fascinating in the context of underground punk and alternative -- no one else was making music as atmospheric and experimental as Edge, except maybe Creed himself -- but it doesn't break any new ground for Edge. For the most part, it sounds identical to the Chrome albums Edge made after splitting with Creed, including a pair of extended epics that the Creed-era Chrome would never have dared. That's not to say it's an unlistenable record by any means -- "I'm a Gentleman" is as chilling and brutal as anything Chrome ever did, while the beautiful piano piece "Rhapsody in Maroon" is far outside Chrome's established range -- but by using the exact same musicians who play on Chrome's post-Creed albums and writing all of the music himself (as he does with Chrome), Edge repeated the same pattern he used when making Chrome albums. Ultimately, as good as Alliance can be, it still seems odd that Edge would choose to release it as a solo album when for all intents and purposes it's really a Chrome album, albeit an impressive one. ~ Victor W. Valdivia