The Dutch band Avalon was founded in 1980. The guitar player Jacques Pisters got nationwide fame at that time; with the song ‘Arabesque’ he won the Gary Moore guitar competition, promoted by the radio metal show “Vara’s Vuurwerk” presented by the late Alfred Lagarde.

The debut album The Third Move was released in 1986, a very strong hard rock album which received much praise. Through the years the line up of the band changed several times. In 1989 the band split up because of different personal reasons. In 2005 the band got together again with the line up of 1983 (named Mark III in the Avalon-episode) and again started playing together. These events resulted in the album Avalon – The Final Move released in 2006. This album is a collection of remastered works of the band during the period between 1980 and 1986. The different line ups are divided in several marks; from Mark I (1980) till Mark XI (2006). The line up Mark XI was the support band of the Uriah Heep gig of November 9th in Geleen (concerthal The Hanenhof).

The album The Final Move has become an interesting document for the developments of the band during the 80’s. Besides songs of the The Third Move-album (‘Dancer In The Eye Of The Storm’, ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’, ‘Necronomicon’) quite some previous unreleased material was recorded.

Until now these songs did not come further than demos and personal tapes of some members and they were never recorded on the long play medium. The album consists of two cds. The first one begins with songs from The Third Move. A funny thing is that the sequence of the first five songs on the cd doesn`t correspond with the printed list of songs on the cd-backside.

The first cd is heavier than the second one, the songs on the second cd (Mark VI and IX) sound more polished and too perfect; these songs are more keyboard oriented and the guitar sound is quite sweet and therefore less heavy than the songs from the earlier period. I am not a fan of such polished songs, as they don’t sound real but faked. About the cover ‘Fox On The Run’ I can be short: long-live the skip button. This cover doesn’t add anything to the original song, so hands of this song!

The last songs of the second cd are demos of the The Third Move material, of which the originals are recorded on the first cd. For me this is the best period of Avalon.

All-in-all The Final Move is a hard rock album of remastered works of the history of Avalon during several line ups with a superb sound. For fans of hard rock music of the 80’s. I surely can recommend this double cd.