GOOD APOLLO, I'M BURNING STAR IV, VOLUME TWO - NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW

I just got this off iTunes today, and have been anticipating it for months. They put the album up on their MySpace page prior to release, and I made sure not to listen to more than two tracks because I didn't want to spoil it. And boy, am I glad I waited.

Good Apollo Vol. I and In Secrets of Silent Earth 3 were both in my regular rotation, and this looks to make it in as well. There is pure rock poetry, guitar thunder, Rush-on-steroids vocals, catchy and solid hooks, and conceptual and lyrical originality that no other band in the mainstream music scene today can touch. And I say this with full knowledge and reverence that Dream Theater, Neal Morse, Marillion, etc. are not mainstream and proudly so.

So the new album? Total pwnage and then some.

With Good Apollo Vol 2., they sound like they've have amped up the drums a bit with Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters fame playing all tracks on the album (and Chris Pennie of Dillinger Escape Plan fame joining as the full time drummer after his contractual duties expire). They sound much more power-balladish and larger than on previous releases. This doesn't really make the "new" lineup sound much different - it just sounds cavernous and big, like they're playing in a warehouse on Mars with divine acoustics. And that's a great thing.

The guitar tracks are straight ahead, balls-out, knock your face off rock. Travis and Claudio give the entire guitar repartee nuance and texture among the bombast, with some great solos (dueling at times), nice clean tones, great compression, acoustic guitar interlaced and other neat sounds thrown in for good measure. The keyboards are sparse and accentuate the songs, providing glitter and adding depth to the album's sonic assault. The instrumentation, orchestration, production and layering is flawless.

This is a great band, and as it's status as "prog-related" indicates, it's difficult to pigeonhole them. I personally would classify them as neo-prog. They're part emo, part metal, part prog, part punk and part hair band. And it's refreshing and unbelievable well-done for this day and age.

Here's hoping they just keep churning out these high-quality albums one after another. I'm listening.