NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN

Pretty enjoyable on a number of fronts once you get over the thievery at work here. Imagine a soup comprised of the early, more straightforward VDGG stuff with Trespass/Nursery Cryme-era Genesis and you come up with the first Fireballet album ... with more than a few melodies and riffs actually lifted verbatim from the aforementioned bands (plus King Crimson's The Letters within the title track). Originality? Hardly, but happily that doesn't impede too much on the classic symphonic prog workout the band dusts off.

The centerpiece, Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain, is unfortunately a too-literal translation, albeit with rock instrumentation, that could have benefited from a new interpretation, particularly played by musicians of the high caliber that Fireballet certainly shows here. On the other side of the coin, Atmospheres may be the most overt Genesis-soaked track this side of Unifaun and Willowglass.

Perhaps the part of Fireballet that tickles me the most is that they're all Jersey boys, I believe. Not to insult my friends from the Garden State, but Jersey bands are just not supposed to sound like this!