EARTH BELOW AND SKY ABOVE

I have just recently gotten into Rocket Scientists, a very underrated band from California (not the first place that pops into my head as a good prog haven). And normally, I don't hold much for live albums. But ''Earth Below'' has just made its way into my most favorite live album list (which only consists of 3 albnms).

Most of this album was recorded at the German Progressive Rock Festival in Bruschal in September 1997, and a few tracks at a local LA club earlier that month, so most of the tracks covered here are from ''Brutal Architecture'' and ''Earthbound''. Here, the songs take on a new vitality, more energy than their studio counterparts. This is especially true for the two medleys (the ''Prog Medley'' which is made up of the instrumentals ''Pythagoras'', ''Copernicus'', and the title track from ''Brutal Architecure''. This song blew me away, as did the ''Threshold Medley'' (ooooooohhhh boy!), which started out with ''Neurosaur'' before suddenly switching to ''Critical Mass''. Mark McCrite and Tommy Amato add their unique touches to Erik Norlander's electronic masterpiece. Nice!) and ''Dark Water Part One'' which shows McCrite adding his own guitar atmospherics before segueing into the wonderful ''Earthbound''.

Norlander's wife and symphonic rock icon Lana Lane makes an appearance on two songs. Her voice is absolutely stunning.

All in all, Rocket Scientists are a wonderful live band, who adds innvoation and new energy to their songs live. Not to be missed!