THE WHIRLWIND

Let me first tell you that this album has nothing to do with metal, it is simply a progressive rock album. But that's not a bad thing at all. The main problem of this album is, as strange as it sounds, its perfection.

Let me explain you this antithesis. The band really concentrates on the concept of the album, on the different instrumental parts and transitions that they forget about the emotions. The album is technically perfect, but it has no surprises. This album has great and interesting lyrics but not a single catchy chorus. The band really delivers value for money with a completely filled CD and even a bonus disc on the special edition, but less would have been more in this case. Even for progressive fans and fans of the bands in which the band members play or played in, this album isn't easy to approach and sounds just overlong and overloaded. This album is the example that perfection leads to boredom. Those little mistakes and the little risks and tricks that connect us to an album are completely missing in here and there is nothing special about this album.

That's why I can't give anything else than a boring average note to this boring stuff. The album is too complicated to get a better rating but technically too perfect to get a lower one. I would only recommend this album to people who listen regularly to progressive rock bands like Spock's Beard and who might really take their time to get an approach to this album and listen to it a dozen times to discover all the details and transitions. If you are really patient, you may get rewarded. If you are a musician and you want to learn and get some inspiration, this album may also be interesting to you because it is like a boring school lesson with four long teacher's speeches: it may frustrate you and make you tired, but if you want it or not, you are still learning something. I can really not recommend this album to people who are only progressive metal and not really progressive rock fans or people who are looking for a catchy album and something innovating.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on October 10th of the year 2010.