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Saga kicked off a style that later would be tagged neo-prog, a type of rock that would revisit the style of the classic progressive bands with some poppy sensibilities added to it for good measure. While this leads to some occasional great results, most bands are a disappointing listen because they compromise their creativity too much in order to conform to particular style or sound that would please the fans. 'Compromise', 'Conform', 'Please fans'. That's not the kind of thing I want from my music.

And so fared Saga, obviously talented but too formulaic to obtain fully satisfactory results. They never managed to make really consistent albums but came close with this debut and with Heads Or Tales. If it wasn't for uninspired Climbing the Ladder and the mediocre Will It Be You? , they might have gotten themselves a real classic with their debut. Instead, it's not really consistent enough. 3.5 stars but I'll round up for once.

Saga apparently hadn't much more then just a few good songs in them. Most of them ended up on the debut, leaving little of merit to fill up the ensuing albums. While the debut had 2 weak tracks out of 8, this second album only has only two songs I can hear without rushing out of my own living room.

It's Time and You're Not Alone are ok but certainly not their best. The rest is an uninspired excuse for an album. Commercial music by the numbers, as if it was produced by an assembly line. I guess I will need to create my own review template to get through this part of my catalogue as swiftly as possible.

Silent Knight is the third release by Saga. Not much has changed. The songs haven't changed, the sound hasn't changed. Creative standstill. Well, maybe, the album art is a lot better actually!

Half of the songs are adequate and match the quality of the debut. Don't Be Late is as good as any of their other up tempo rockers. Also Help Me Out has a nice interplay between guitars and keyboards, Careful Where You Step is another poignant rocker.

One thing you gotta give Saga. They were one of the few 70's rock bands that made such good use of keyboards. Never indulging into pointless solos but nevertheless strongly present in the overall sound. 2.5 stars.

Saga sound a bit refreshed here. Never since the debut had they been so focused and sharp. They even tried out a few other sounds and production techniques. Not always successful but still, it's a change at least.

Of course, most tracks conform to the trademark Saga modus operandi. On The Loose, Wind Him Up and No Stranger are assembled according to the Saga prescription. Generic, but at least they sound like they're having fun at it.

The remainder of the album actually contains some new tactics. The rhythms used in Amnesia, The Interview and Conversations even echo some of Bowies Berlin trilogy experiments. Unfortunately, the results aren't all that captivating and the choruses are really weak. Time's Up is almost a Kraftwerk track, be it with a little guitar left and right. Nice track this one.

Again, it's not much better then just those 4 good tracks. 2.5 stars. Since I rounded up two Saga albums already, this one rounds down.

In 1983 my brother taped a concert of a highly regarded Canadian prog rock band from a Dutch radio broadcast. I was sold on the spot. No wonder. The set list contained 4 tracks from this fine album and a wide selection of all their best songs from 1978 to 1982. I thought I had found me a new favorite band.

Big was my disappointment when I went back through their discography and concluded that they had played about every good track they ever made. Apparently, I completely agreed with Saga on only one point: which were their good songs and which were not.

However, the 1983 studio album wasn't a disappointment. Despite its overproduced sound, this one finally has 9 equally consistent songs. It has plenty of variation, the playing is tight and the vocals are intense. Unfortunately that was it for Saga. I haven't heard one single good song from them ever since. 3.5 stars. Rounded up again for sentimental reasons.

Il Tempo Della Semina is the second album from seventies Italian prog rockers Biglietto Per L'inferno. It's failure to be completed and released at the time was to shortly lead to the band splitting up and it didn't see the light of day until 1992 unfortunately. Not surprisingly it's a bit rough round the edges.

After their classic debut Il Tempo Della Semina is a bit of a disappointment but still contains some fine moments. Biglietto Per L'inferno occupy the heavier end of the RPI spectrum though less so here in comparison to their debut. While echoes of their debut are present there are less symphonic leanings and the sound is more varied. Clearly the band didn't want to produce part two of their debut and have made obvious effort to move forward and try something different. The result is an overall less cohesive and inspired effort though. Particularly noticeable is vocalist Claudio Canali's singing style which has changed I have to admit, not for the better. It's less refined lacking the more histrionic moments on their debut, having a rawer sound.

The title and opening track is excellent however, if not reaching the heights of their first album then not far off. Over the course of 10 minutes the music constantly shifts on this largely instrumental piece with only a short spoken word vocal part. Pleasing dual keyboard work against powerful guitar and a dynamic rhythm section and flute adding the icing on the cake, an instrument semingly prevalent in much Italian prog.

Mente Sola - Mente shows a few cracks appearing and is the least satisfying moment here as a horn honks against a background of all sorts of strange sounds until a synth takes over. Thankfully it's short lived at less than 3 minutes.

Viva Lotta Pensa is much better seeing the band back in symphonic vein on this keyboard dominated piece. L'arte Sublime Di Un Giusto Regnare has a Jethro Tull vibe and Solo Ma Vivo sees them fitting in a number of moods and changes on a relatively short song. Finally another longish song to close, La Canzone Del Padre doesn't work as well as Il Tempo..... but is still worthwhile, once again going through many changes.

So Il Tempo Della Semina while not being in the same league as their excellent debut still has enough of interest to make it a worthwhile purchase for RPI lovers though not essential listening by any means.

The story of GREY LADY DOWN begins at late-80's when singer Martin Wilson met keyboardist Louis David and formed ''Shadowland'' along with guitarist Julian Hunt.The original rhythm section consisted of Andrew Rae and Stuart Ellerington,but in 1992 they were replaced by Sean Speare on bass and Mark Robotham on drums,while the band was renamed to GREY LADY DOWN (after an eponymous film of 1978 with Charlton Heston),as Clive Nolan had already a project under the name ''Shadowland''.The band gigged at the Oxford area and entered Phoenix Studios in 1993 to record their own material.Followed by a memorable performance at the Marquee Club of London the band signed a two-albums deal with Cyclops and ''The crime'' meant to be the first one.

Led by the sensitive and magnificent voice of Martin Wilson,GREY LADY DOWN played typical British progressive rock of the new wave with lots of digital keyboards, deep atmospheres, nice guitar hooks and symphonic tendencies.David's style of playing is very close to MARILLION's Mark Kelly with distinctive solos and grandiose fillers dominating the album.Julian Hunt has his own style with a guitar sound gearing up where it should (Gary Chandler of JADIS comes sometimes to mind) and far from being the band's hero with boring solos and any kind of this stuff.We meet an excellent drummer named Mark Robotham and a groovy bassist under Sean Speare,completing a quartet of excellent musicians...But the singing performance of Wilson is the real highlight of ''The crime'',a singer with theatrical chords and an emotional approach to music.Simply awesome!For fans of light-symph/song- based progressive rock this should certainly be a fascinating purchase.Strongly recommended, especially for the great vocal work...3.5 stars for this nice effort!

A stunning album, really superb, when I first heard it I was frankly impressed, is one of the albums that I heard recently and caused this great impression on me, his style, like the wine was improving, become better and better, the style was becoming more radical, more and more off from the roots of jazz, of traditional jazz, the guitar (played by McLaughlin), in this Live Evil, plays an important role, mades "Gemini/ Double Image" an epic song because of the epic sound... the piano, just great, by Keith Jarret was unbeatable... Davis' trumpet better than ever, listen the spatial sounds has a real soundtrack ...

Roller has many cryptic sounds that remind me of those old bands where they played with great organs, like the style of jazz from New Orleans, not musically similar... For the description of this album i want to be as objective as possible, if that exists ... I think generally has a sound very slow, sometimes boring would say, there perfection in the execution of the instruments, everything is correctly written, played, but for me, are somewhat lacking viscera or emotion or feeling; Roller ( the track) is the demostration of this, with Aquaman, things improve a little bit, but return in every bad way to the same, and unfortunately the title of the song seems frankly ridiculous, plucked guitars and synths that seem to go in a zig-zag line is proposed on this water man ...

The album in general is not very far from that. Finally I would just like to add that it seems that I effort to hate this record, but the truth is not so, just think it's bad.

OK, let's state some facts first. I don't like Best of's (or Very Best of / Greatest Hits / Essential / Golden and these terrible abominations of music culture), yet I'm reviewing this album (my second BO if I'm correct, feel free to correct me). And I'm also aware of simple fact that they're album band. Some are bad, some are better and some perfect (actually, I see 3 5-stars, 5 4-stars and 2 worse stars), but in this case, it's not fair to condemn this one.

Because same as with Queen's BO, this is collection of really great songs, actually, there are almost the best songs by them. I don't know their albums so well (even I know them basically), but for me, these songs are separateable. Maybe I'm not so into this, but after all, who knows these things after all. For me, this, as a compilation is perfect. It won't appear in top list, it shouldn't make others feel bad, so what's the problem ?

4(+), because from what I see, giving 5 star is something like idiotic nonsense that no sane progger would do. It's almost prohibited, under the punishment of being hated by everyone, huh ? Nevermind, I feel that compilation is not true form, or in other words, how should it be. But as a represent of their best work it's very well. I would give 5-star, but you know, this is just best of.