EMPIRES NEVER LAST

An atmospheric female almost childlike vocal part opens this work just accompanied by dark keyboard chords (almost only audible as a deep rumble - a silence before the storm, I guess?), then a male voice joins in, but not for long - a voice screams "Defiance" (this shout does not work well I must admit)but this are the only three seconds in the track that don't work) and then the music lifts into prog-metal like spheres - organ and heavy guitars continuing into a dark neo-prog journey - the first almost 6 minutes are over before we realise it.

Track Two, "Termination" start with soft piano notes, slightly reminding of the Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner, then heavy guitars and bombastic keyboards, male and female vocals taking turns, sometimes distorted. Pallas or the "modern" Pendragon come to mind ... then techno like rhythms with the beautiful piano notes from the beginning ... works excellent! This is music to race down a highway at midnight!

"I could be God", the high light of the album takes us on a 13 minute journey through heavy neo-prog waters. The vocals are a kind of Fish in an aggressive mood with typical rolling Rs ..."sipping my "Earrrrl Grrrey Tea!" This is what Marillion would have sounded if Fish hadn't left and if Prog Metal would have found its way into their sound. After ca. five Minutes we get a little break, the track slows down, the keyboards preach in slow multilayered orchestrations. And here they are again: the Fish like vocals, this time in a calm voice, joining the keyboards to be accompanied by Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" (ok this soundclip is a bit overused, but somehow it is incorporated brilliantly), I have a dream .... and then the tempo picks up a bit , Organ again, heavy guitars, ... take off .... flying ....... and for the finale the tempo increases again ... with this tracks Galahad are almost Godlike.

"Sidewinder", opens slow, somewhat more mellow then the previous track, a little bit of a letdown in relation to the highs experienced before ... I would have put "I could be God" at the end. Not a bad track, but so far the weakest track, something is missing, niece and solid neo-prog.

Acoustic guitar opens "Memories from an African Twin", a mid-tempo instrumental piece. Still a rock instrumental but here the natural instruments take over more (a church organ, harpsichord,) .... not a bad track

The title track brings back some of the magic back we experienced during the first three track, but unfortunately just some of the magic, maybe the filling of 9 minutes was a bit ambitious ... the last three minutes rock!

And now for the last round ... "This Life could be my last ..." Piano, a crackling of a record player introspective vocals open the track, then the electronics kick in, ..., the tempo is brought up ... now I am reminded of IQ, a strong track, all in all, but also not quite up to the standard of the first three.

To sum up: 5 Stars for Track 1, 2, and 3! 3 Stars for Track 4 and 4 Stars for Track 5,6, and 7. Altogether this boils down to a 4 Star Album. If you like Pallas, the last two Pendragon outputs and IQ, you will love this album.

By the way, this was my first review written for PA.