THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME

I can follow in some way what is meant by a small minority of reviewer criticising the dominance of narcistic show-off of technical skills, too much aimlessness and the lack of genuine feeling on this record. Listening to this stunning amazing tour de force and high-speed (actually only interrupted by the relaxing "Lotus.") one could well get the idea that the DT-guys tried to walk in the footsteps of McLaughlin & Co a few decades later. I'm usually not easily impressed and fascinated by virtuoso and self-indulgent solo escapades shown by Dream Theater and the likes but for some strange reason I like very much the work of this Orchestra. Maybe it's due to the presence of violin (which I appreciate a lot in rock and jazz music) or the total absence of any vocals (I much prefer instrumental Prog) that I feel highly appealed by this record. I find it as well very amazing how all the musicians manage to follow McLaughlin's insane pace but of course there are only brilliant guys involved here. But this fact might also be exactly the reason why this work cannot be considered a masterpiece (at least in my view) since too many and too big egos are preventing that. Anyway this one had been an excellent demonstration of artistic skills not only by one of the greatest guitarists in the world, but also by Goodman with his bewildered violin play, Hammer with awesome e-piano, Laird's brilliant bass and of course Cobham's wonderful drums which I'm especially a huge fan of. His Spectrum-album as well as his two Paradox-albums were just marvelous works and must-have for any rock-jazz fan. For this one here I would say a 4-star rating is adequate since for sure it's an essential one in Prog but not really perfect composition-wise.