LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD

Being honest with you, i enjoyed this album much more a month ago than today, it could happen with several albums or songs and it´s something natural, there are so many things that one day you love and after time you less enjoy, but other things called masterpieces that you listen and listen now and then, and you cannot get tired of them, this is not the case surely.

I had the luck of seeing SoP in Mexico City in October, and believe me, i loved it, despite it was only a bit more than an hour of performance (because of Anathema were the main band), and actually the track list was pretty similar as this CD.

I reviewed first this DVD, and my grade was 4 stars, right now i would keep that 4 stars because watching a DVD is a thing that i less do than hearing an album, so i cannot get tired of watching a DVD if i dont do it very often, also a DVD could be much better than the CD itself.

Here we can find 20 songs, 8 of them were chosen from their debut "Embrace the Storm" release, so here you will almost listen to te whole album, besides that, here you will listen to Arjen´s songs (Ayreon, Ambeon and Star One), but the most are from Ayreon´s albums, "Warracle", "Computer Eyes" or "Day 3: Pain" which are very well performanced, and as an extra addition, a guest singer appears here, Damian Wilson who is a good Arjen´s friend supported SoP in this tour, obviously he participates in songs such as "The Castle Hall" or "Into the Black Hole". And since Led Zep is one of Arjen´s favorite bands, they included a cover from "When the Levee Breaks" which is not bad, but i would had been better if they omit it.

So, the best things here, of course Marcela´s voice, im not tired of saying that, her voice is simply beautiful, the great riffs of Lori and Arjen, and the performance of Ayreon´s songs besides the SoP ones.

I like it, but maybe now i have to rest a bit of them or actually rest a bit of metal, i´ve never been a metal head, but i like some bands and albums, SoP could be light or catchy metal and right now im giving to this album 3 stars, because it´s good but non essential.

Well. I am very exited about this album, and it is not because I am a Mexican prog lover as Marcela and Alejandro, but this is a wonderful performance. As we all know so far, Arjen Lucassen is a genious who have developed a great style of making new and original exellent music, with his previous works as Ayreon and Star One. This is something that nobody can miss. Specially the songs from Ayreon are played wonderfuly and the Led Zeppelin cover of "When the Levee Breaks" with an special finale "Kashmir" style, is just something else. A multinational band, different instruments, countries, lenguajes, united in one great harmony and beat. You know, Arjen´s work. This peace of work is filled of unique ingredients, like Marcela´s extraordinary voice, great drums and keys. Lori´s guitar, wonderful bass and additional chorus and violin. Highly recommended and I still have not seen the DVD. Good for Arjen, prog lovers and extraordinary musicians all over the globe!!!