BEWARE OF DARKNESS

For their follow-up to The Light, SB focused more on shorter and punchier tunes, and began experimenting with some newer-ish styles, such as the multi-vocal Gentle Giant choral style (on "Thoughts"). This was the album that saw Ryo Okumoto join as the main keyboard player, and he gets some nice solos in. The album is not quite at the same level as "The Light" though. It is not as inventive (despite "Thoughts"), and I find Morse a touch preachier with each passing album. The album opens with a progressive cover of George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness", which works decently, but nothing I would write home about. The best tracks include the wonderful "Thoughts", which even with the choral vocals manages to be quite a diverse and free-flowing tune. The multi-part choral vocals sound remarkably like Gentle Giant, but the rest of the piece is very much SB. "Chataqua" is a beautiful acoustic guitar solo from Alan Morse, and to my mind the best track on the album ? I wish there were more of these on each SB album! "Time has Come" and especially "The Doorway" are also very musical. Meanwhile "Waste Away" is the weakest track. I have to say, I don't find myself putting this one on nearly as much as other Morse-era SB albums though. I give this album 6.9 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to mid 3 PA stars.