THE LOST ART OF TIME TRAVEL

Can't shake of the feeling where this American band has it's roots. It's from their fellow countrymen Kansas and Styx in my opinion with also big resemblance with their lesser known compatriots Cryptic Vision. The long and fairly complex compositions have obviously most resemblance with Kansas but funny enough the sound is more like Styx to me with Cryptic Vision as good second. So there's probably an obvious typical American prog style at least where the heavier symphonic prog is concerned.

Because that's what this is to me, a blend of symphonic prog and heavy prog but there's indeed also an inexplicable hint to pop music I notice every time I hear this album and that's where my comparison to Styx comes from and is probably the reason this band is categorized in the crossover genre. The main reason for this feeling is caused by the vocals I believe. But there's also a strange mix of this almost commercial Styx style with the sheer symphonic style of Kansas. The instrumental parts are pretty complex and extensive and bemuse me somewhat.

All things considered this album is quite hard to rate for me. The best score would be 3,5 stars but that's still not possible alas so I will have to make the hard choice once again. And even though this is a good/very good album I feel 4 stars would be just about too much for my taste so I will give three. Fans of Kansas and the other mentioned bands should really check this one out.