SILENT KNIGHT

"Silent Knight" is number 3 of this band's discography and by this time they had settled in with 2 decent albums and each had its own different keyboardist. This album marks the arrival of Jim Gilmour who is tremendously underrated keyboardist. He would become the band's more or less permanent member on keys. He and drummer Steve Negus would be fired from the band after the "World's Apart" tour but brought back a few boring albums later. Gilmour is still with the band to this day. Negus would move on after a while.

All of the musicians are excellent and each album showed improvement. Sadler has a great voice for the kind of lyrics the band has as he is able to place himself and others well into roles. The Crichton brothers, Ian (guitars) and Jim (bass) are constants but eventually Jim retired from the band a few years ago.

Then production on this album I thought was a definite improvement over "Images" and their debit. This album is in many ways like the first 2. It starts out on a song that come sin slowly (Don't Be Late) but does not end that way and rocks its way through. "Time To Go" is a god tune that captures attention. Gilmour's keys really standout on this album keeping mind that Sadler also plays. "Compromise" is a good catchy tune and Ian gets in a good bit of guitar work. "You've Got Too Much To Lose" is my favorite track on the album with it's prog keyboard start and gradual buildup into the song and a great chorus. The keyboard work is also really good here. One production note: The volume on this song is lower than on other tracks especially the next one "Help Me Out" which is not only louder but punchier and the bass is deeper on both bass and drums. Too Much To Lose would have been better with that production.

We have 2 new Chapters in this album including that track. They were marked by The Chapters which are songs that appeared on several of the first albums and then were brought back later. The band revealed these over a 28-year period in a mixed-up order, creating a conceptual puzzle. In its final form, The Chapters tells a science fiction story concerning the preservation of Albert Einstein's brain, aliens who are concerned with humanity's self-destruction, and the resurrection of the dead through technology. We have chapters 4 and 6 on this album. Being that I started listening to them early on, this story on the chapters was not ever revealed until after they were done presenting the songs so if you are looking for the meaning I recommend their live album titled none other than "The Chapters."

"Someone Should" has a good solo guitar wise. The trouble with the guitar is that it is shoved back in the mix and not so up front during solos. Saga definitely needed a better set of producers. The last song "Careful Where You Step" is a nice song with a good punchy start. Sadler's voice is very dramatic here. It has good flow from section to section and definitely qualifies as a prog song. Like their debut, the last song ends in an instrumental minus the vocoder.

I like this album in many ways more than the first 2 and it is a great way to introduce their most popular album.