THE LOST ART OF TIME TRAVEL

Why oh why? Their debut album was a highly enjoyable modern pomp-rock album. it had it's weaknesses,but it was a kind of tribute to the hard-rock meets prog masters of the 70's, like Styx, Deep Purple and others. In fact they were trying to be like a modern Styx with more artistic vision. Their strengths were catchy choruses, tight vocal harmonies, swirling synths and big riffs, while not relying so much on generic rock like their 70's counterparts.

So why have they forsaken their strengths and gone in techno-flash overdrive? For a band whose best qualities might be their vocal harmonies, this record strikes me as being mostly based on long, meandering instrumentals. They're trying to be very proggy and technical, but that's not their forte. The main instrument in their sound is heavy guitars, so you can imagine what their ten minute instrumental work is like. The organs aren't that prominent in the mix. Technoflash records are hard for Emerson, Wakeman, Howe, etc. to pull off, so why do these guys have to try and pull it off? At least know your limits and your areas of interest!

The opening ten minute "The Mind Machine" is actually pretty good. The instrumental music is quite good and the choruses aren't bad either. But "Thieves" makes little impression over nine minutes. The acoustic "You're alive" is a very enjoyable 4-minute ditty that plays to their strengths, a big sound, vocal harmonies and pleasant melodies. But it's followed by "One tragedy at a time", a tragedy indeed. This fourteen minute song just meanders and leaves the listener with very little of interest. At least it's followed by the best song on the album, the excellent "I'm not blind", which is vintage Pomp rock, with a beautiful chorus. The only other song that offers anything interesting is "haze", which meanders a bit, but does have some good sections. There's even a Dennis DeYoung sound-alike ballad moment. With some editing it could have been a great five minute song? The closing two and a half minutes of this song is excellent. Unfortunately, the other song, "Easy Tomorrow" has a weak chorus.

I think PB should have a good think about where they are going. They are a very good pomp- rock band who seem to be pandering too much to the prog crowd. There are three great short tracks that were left off their 2005 album "Peace among the ruins", namely 'Surprise', 'Gypsy Road' and 'Mr. Amazing', which are better tracks than most of what is on this album.