PILGRIMAGE TO A POINT

This album sounds like a cross-breed of GTR (the 80's band formed by guitar legends Steve Howe and Steve Hackett) and 3 (the version of Emerson, Lake & Palmer not featuring Greg Lake). This is hardly surprising since Robert Berry was involved in both bands; Berry was invited to contribute to a follow-up (that never came to fruition) to the self-titled GTR album and he was Greg Lake's replacement in 3. On the present album, Berry goes solo, but at least some of the material consists of leftovers from GTR and 3 sessions. Some of the songs here were co-written by Berry and Steve Howe, some with Carl Palmer, and the closing track with Keith Emerson. Perhaps this is what Asia would have sounded like had it been Emerson instead of Geoff Downes handling the keyboards?

Berry sings all lead vocals and plays most of the instruments. This includes some very Howe-like guitars and some very Emerson-like keyboards. Berry is a good musician and instrumentalist, but he lacks a style of his own. The vocals are professional, but again rather anonymous.

The quality of the material is varied and ranges from strong to pedestrian. The best, and most progressive, track is the closing number Last Ride Into The Sun. This one is in the style of To The Power Of Three (which in turn is in the style of ELP). Another highlight is Shelter which reminds me somewhat of the style of Trevor Rabin's better recordings. It features a nice piano and acoustic guitar section. No One Else To Blame that opens the album is the most GTR-like number. It is not bad, but is not up to par with the better songs from the self-titled GTR album (an album I actually like a lot!). The least good songs are in the middle towards the end. Here the album runs out of steam and frankly tends to get unexciting (until it is reinvigorated by the aforementioned Last Ride Into The Sun).

Pilgrimage To A Point is a good but far from essential album. It is recommended to fans of the bands mentioned above.

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