ON THIS PERFECT DAY

I wonder why Guilt Machine does not seem to stir much commotion around here. Normally all hell breaks loose when a new Ayreon is released. Not so for this project. It is a fine album though and sounds more refreshing then the 01011001 that disappointed me.

Guilt Machine is quite a super group: Arjen Lucassen, Chris Maitland, Jasper Steverlinck (an excellent singer and well known in Belgium from his band Arid. From my home town even.). And on lead guitar, Lori Linstruth. So Arjen turns up with another beautiful woman again. Where does he keep getting them!? Stupid jokes aside, she's a very enjoyable player and has a few nice leads and impressive solos.

So what is the reason of its poor reception? The marketing campaign? Maybe. But there must be more. A thing that strikes me every time I play this album is that it passes by without me taking much note of it. It's all pleasant, agreeable, full of soft atmospherics, with 10 minute songs and nice metal flourishes but it just fails to grab me by the throat. It fails to compel me to listen to it.

Twisted Coil is a good example, it starts softly, nice clean guitar picking, bit of mellotron, good melody but after 2 or 3 minutes you stop to take notice until the pace finally changes round 5 and a half minutes and we are treated to a great heavy guitar progression. Bit of an ELP feel on that one. But the theme is repeated for another 5 minutes and again it wears thin after 2. The song concludes by repeating the opening section with heavy guitars and emotive singing. Great, but only for 30 seconds...

Now I don't have anything against themes repeating for 5 minutes. I'm a fan of Schulze so I can take it. But here it does fail to build up to anything, nor does it entrances you or captures your attention in any other way. Conclusion. Material for 4 minues. Stretched to 11.

Now I won't spoil your listening pleasure by going through all songs like this. Some are better then the opener, others are similar or worse. I'd like to give this 4 stars but no, it doesn't come near.