RADIO VOLTAIRE

This time without the ex-Porcupine Tree drummer Christ Maitland, who is substituted by Craig Blundell. Nevertheless, this change cannot be really heard in this Radio Voltaire, which follows the style of the first album of the band named Picture with a mixture of neo-prog melodies, pop influenced choirs and the typical John Mitchell's stylish and epic melodies.

Maybe this Radio Voltaire contains stronger guitars and riffs, making the album a bit more hard rock oriented.

But sadly, this Radio Voltaire suffers from the same problems that Picture had. Some cool prog tracks like Radio Voltaire and Idlewild are mixed with much more inconsistent, repetitive and flat ones, making this record not really interesting for true prog-rock lovers and also flawed for AOR or hard rock fans.

Best Tracks: Radio Voltaire (great guitar melodies at the beginning) and Idlewild.

Conclusion: harder in style than Picture but even more irregular in quality and songwriting, Radio Voltaire is difficult to recommend to any prog rock fan because it's too dull and repetitive in the long term.

Maybe if you are a die-hard fan of other projects of John Mitchell like Frost* or The Urbane you will find Radio Voltaire attractive, but for me it's rather forgettable.

My Rating: **