LET ALL MEN KNOW - THIS IS SACRED GROUND

I have similar feelings about this album as Second Life Syndrome. It's definitely true that many of the songs are not prog at all, and there are lots of predictable chord progressions and extremely simplistic drums. Also I had some associations towards 80's soft, folkish rock. For the most part this is a fairly enjoyable, peaceful album and shouldn't be criticized just for not being more progressive. Anyway I have much better memories from their two earlier albums. And The Dance Begins Again (2009) included some really great tracks with spacey Pink Floyd influence, whereas this remains more in the "nice" department.

The keyboard player Matti Kervinen's warm baritone voice is featured on most tracks, so let's start with the rest. The title track is the only instrumental, not memorable but quite beautiful. I think it's one of the tracks that get better with multiple listenings which can't be said of the whole album. 'Batman' is a simple acoustic song about a superhero tired of chasing bad guys, sung by Matti Inkinen who has a very dry, sort of out-of-breath voice (distantly related to Tom Waits or Don Henley of The Eagles but more fragile). Musically this song and the other Inkinen ballad 'Danish Lullaby' are close to Neil Young at his folkiest. Inkinen sings also on the closing and more rocking song 'Blind Eye' which is the longest at 6:15. One of the better actually. Towards the album's end I got some brief associations to Roger Waters' Amused To Death (1992), the beginnings of 'It's a Miracle' and 'Amused to Death' to be more precise. Besides, Kervinen as a vocalist is perhaps a cross between the greying R. Waters at his most intimate and David Gilmour in his later days.

The weakest track is definitely the poppy 'Soul Basement'; without it the album would be a bit better. All the others are, as I said, nice. Kalle Fält's saxophone adds very good colour to the sound. This is not PAX ROMANA at their best but a nice, modest, honest, mellow album with its little faults.