ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

If you are a musician (especially a guitarist) or just a fan of great and well produced hard rock and progressive metal, then you will probably love this disk after a few listens. The guitarist plays some beautifully powerful and melodic riffs, the drummer sounds like he really loves what he does and has fun with percussions, and James does a nice job on the vocals. The production value is amazing and the disk just sounds fantastic. The bassist also does a nice job. I was not crazy about the keyboards - they are definitely understated compared to Dream Theater's Images and Words, Six Degrees, Scenes from a Memory, and various tracks with lots of keyboards.

Yes - the disk is not as progressive as some may want. However, really great and powerful heavy metal has all but disappeared from the music scene. I applaud this album's effort to appeal to people who appreciate solid hard rock and progressive music. It is fun to turn up this up loud and appreciate it for what it is, a great heavy metal disk.