PROPHECY

Prophecy is a special album in the Solstice discography for two reasons. The first reason it is their first album to be recorded with the exact same lineup that produced their previous studio album. (Indeed, it's almost but not quite the same lineup as produced their previous two albums, since The Cropredy Set - a live-in-the-studio affair rather than a true live album - was recorded with an almost-identical group of musicians except Pete Hemsley wasn't on drums, Clive Bunker was.)

The other reason? Why, simply that this is the best album Solstice have produced to date. Set aside the three bonus tracks - remixes from Silent Dance by Steven Wilson - because whilst those are decent, at the same time there's only so much even Steven can do to rectify the issues arising from the somewhat unsympathetic production job which Silent Dance suffered from. Concentrate instead on the five-song cycle that constitutes this album, and drink in the gorgeous production job which really teases out the subtleties of the band's work. With stronger than usual compositions, the band may well have produced their magnum opus here.