IN THE HOT SEAT

This the classic example regarding a kind of irritating compromise, forced by their producer, in which Greg Lake chose the easier way to increase the sales (otherwise this was their attempt), without reaching this goal. in the period before such a flop, their previous work from the Studio - entitled "Black Moon" - was not a successful album, even though their old fans could have been interested in their reunion after so many years.well by thinking of an instrumental track like "Changing States" as well as the piano solo composed by Emerson (resembling the old times), the enthusiast were so happy. Nevertheless such mentioned remarkable episodes, along with "Romeo and Juliet", had been already used for a movie soundtrack a couple of years before, despite of representing a perfect promotion for the "Black Moon Tour" (even witnessed by three live recordings, taken from their performance in the USA, UK and Poland.); therefore fortunately, in spite of hardly foretelling their return to the early formula of "symphonic rock", this wasn't their last appearance on stage!!

Instead the present disappointing work represented the last episode before their definitive break-up, even accelerated by a terrible accident which occurred to Emerson, being unable to use both his hands in the execution of the songs.ok this made their job more complicated, but anyway I cannot understand their choice concerning for example a song by Bob Dylan; while the old stunning style by Emerson was a bit emerging during the play of "Hand of truth" (this title is clear!!), even though that's not enough to save a work characterized by a number of tepid pop songs!!

Nowadays the band doesn't exist anymore; however They are prosecuting on their own way, each one with his own ensemble and sometimes also touring all over Europe. well the unique exception is represented by the unlucky moment concerning the life of Emerson, being recovered once again after another medical operation (this time at a cardiologic surgery): in fact, cause of a urgent operation on his main aorta, He will stopped, as long as He will be able to sustain the strong efforts of his job.however forget this album and think of the new bands created by three die-hard musicians, always fond of their job and fighting against the difficult moment of the music market. they play in the European small clubs, often at a few local gigs, as They liked to enter the circuit of the "underground" progressive.so long live the unknown "Prog" gigs and Festivals all over the world, as long as We need to hear exciting music, on stage at least!!

First evaluation: a "1 star" score

Second one: a "2 stars" superior score as for my encouragement only, after the accident occurred to Emerson