BLACK GARDEN

Well, this time I can not completely "forgive" them for their replacement of A. Holdsworth, by means of a good guitarist like Karl Johnson, cause the original project should have been remarked as the re-birth of the UK famous superband (in spite of E.Jobson and J. Wetton lacking), in the main concept at least; but now, by going back to their beginning once again, the band has been obliged to reset everything, even though They are well driven by the mastermind Ken Jacquess here and their flawless playing is unequivocal.

In fact his plot develops the beautiful story of the first inhabitants who colonized the wild islands, cut-off from the civilization of the modern world; so, by using some fine lyrics and capturing the emotion of the first adventures, Ken has performed a good job...ok some music passages are mellow and the album plot predictable as well, but it's not so much derivative and in vein of such a classic prog rock of the seventies, after all!!

I don't like the discontinuity of the composition (unlike "Book of the Dead"), but the vocalism is very good, even tough the melodic lines are quite uneven!!

Make your personal choice as usual but- in spite of being inferior than their debut work- this new album is not bad; and- even though K2 stand still in search of a precise identity, remaining "in the average" like many other prog bands from the USA, I hope to see them live on stage, before evaluating their performance definitivelyl!