THE MASQUERADE OVERTURE

I'm not going to do a song-by-song review of this one. There are already plenty of glowing reviews here, and justifiably so, so I'm not going to attempt to do much more than add in a rather thin, reedy voice to a lush, full-throated chorus and say that is Pendragon's masterpiece and an album most bands (even prog bands) would be very happy to have in their catalog. There isn't a single weak track here and really not even a single weak moment. "As Good as Gold", "Paintbox", "Guardian of My Soul", "The Shadow" and "Master of Illusion" are all fantastic tracks - lush, well-arranged and masterfully-written. It's not often that a band hits everything right in a single document, but somehow these guys managed it here. One of my top albums ever. My only complaint is that this was my introduction to Pendragon, so everything I encountered afterward was simply not quite up to this level. But I'd rather have had that happen than to have never heard it all. Five unequivocal stars.