LIVE AT THE CALEDONIEN HALL

One of the best sounding live recordings I've ever heard, and it's because the band splurged on a huge PA system to allow them to recreate the full complexity of their studio textures, delicate, layered ambience over churning black and thrash inspired metal riffs. This is a sprawling album and must have been a fitting homage to long-time fans of the band that got to see this final concert. The song selection covers their whole career although focuses mostly on their two proggier studio albums Strange in Stereo and Omnio, as well as the single-collection Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage. What this means is that the listener gets a lot of really well composed epic tracks that build slowly, withholding no atmosphere and effects until they are broken magnificently into their riffs and sections. It's hard to describe the unique-ness of the sound this band achieved, but the balance is almost pitch perfect between ambience and heaviness, and the arrangements allow the instruments to keep moving through these soundscapes, not settling for monotony. Of interest to prog fans might be the epic cover of King Crimson's Epitaph, pushed to a logical and emotional conclusion with male and female vocals and melancholic tune-age. The whole album is full of truly gripping moments, almost a flawless live album through and through, although some brief noticeable mistakes.