A STORY TWO DAYS WIDE

As a Pendragon and IQ fan I would not place this album anywhere near as good any of the classic albums by those bands. I found the album very cliched, tired touches of old Marillion in the guitar sound and overall the music very dull and dated. The songs and melodies are simply not strong enough against the quality prog bands and the vocals border on grating/irritating. Like the previous album 'Children' the vocalist sings with little variation and has no real power in his voice and all the vocals sound the same. That to me is the main reason why I do not like this band much as all good neo-prog bands really rely on a decent front man and this guy, to my ears anyway, sounds like a 3rd class Rush singer. While Nick Barrett of Pendragon is an acquired taste as a vocalist, his strength as a songwriter of superb melodic songs compensates for his lack of vocal prowess. Peter Nicholls of IQ is a wonderful singer and allied to that some of the most crushing melodies in the IQ back catalogue makes them head and shoulders above Iluvatar.

You cannot beat a quality prog song - listen to IQs last album - and this has no real song that stands out but in kindness, some of the final track is not too bad but not enough to warrant buying this.

In summary, too much vocal and not enough real instrumental playing or changes in styel, bog standard songs sung by a very mediocre vocalist and for any genuine fan of IQ or Pendragon - AND I STRESS THIS MOST STRONGLY - do not believe the hype as this band are not in the same league as those 2 quality bands and sound absolutely nothing like them. Beware, but if basic neo-prog is your thing then by all means go ahead and buy it.

I know this review will piss some people off but having listened to prog music since 1970 I think I am more than qualified to comment on what is good or bad. Unfortunately, this album falls into the latter category IMHO.