THE ROAD OF BONES

IQ have been growing in heaviness recently. On their latest they don't exactly reverse this direction, but take a sidestep. This is darker, slower, more atmospheric IQ, with subtle additions in hypnotic rhythms and modern electronic sounds, although most songs still follow the sparse-to-bombastic dynamics. Keyboars and bass are more upfront than guitar, which provides more rhythm than solos. There is a bonus disk, which is no outtakes. It's almost as interesting, almost because they obviously spent less time refining those songs not being part of the album concept, but cut out a few, mix 'em up and you'll get a full-fledged 80 minutes album. The thing stopping me from rating this IQ's best is that epics are predictable (sparse-pick up the pace-rock out-release) and slightly less well-flowing than their best epic efforts from other albums.