DARK MATTER

IQ

Neo-Prog

4.06 | 1026 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Another well-acclaimed album that I find unredemptive. This band has chosen to water down all that was Genesis--even further than the Four/Three did in the Wind and Wuthering-and-after era.

1. "Sacred Sound" (11:40) Genesis lite with no dazzle or pizzaz, simply stark and dull with flat melody lines from vocalist Peter Nicholls. (19/25)

2. "Red Dust Shadow" (5:53) Some memorable melodies and nice synth play cannot save this barely-two-dimensional song. (8.25/10)

3. "You Never Will" (4:54) clocks and rolling bass lead into a Gabriel-era feeling song. The drums' sound is horrible! The chorus is only notable for the half-Peter Hammill, half-Ozzie Osborn vocal. (8.25/10)

4. "Born Brilliant" (5:20) recorded home- and industrial sounds with sustained deep synth chord set this one up as a theatric chiller. But then the vocal takes us in a totally different, unexpected direction. What should have been a musical adventure through a house of horrors is turned sophomoric by a misfitted lyric. Weird. Did the band approve of Peter's lyrics here? Or were they just trying to get out of the studio? Kind of like Genesis' The Lamb music and lyrics rift scenario (or, at least it feels that way). (8/10)

5. "Harvest of Souls" (24:29) Nice "Cinema Show/Entangled"-like 12-string guitar based music with synth washes and orchestral hits and later bass pedals all ruined by vocals and lyrics that just don't fit. One of the poorest long-playing prog epics I've ever heard from a supposed-"elite" prog band--almost nothing works together. (35/50) - i. First Of The Last - ii. The Wrong Host - iii. Nocturne - iv. Frame And Form - v. Mortal Procession - vi. Ghosts Of Days

Total Time: 52:16

Three stars; a fair contribution to the lexicon of progressive rock music but nothing you'd miss if you'd never heard it.

BrufordFreak | 3/5 | 2013-8-1

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