THE SEVENTH HOUSE

This album has been released after the marvelous "Subterranea". Again, IQ still make a progressive masterpiece, full of interesting and impressive parts. Out of 6 tracks, 5 are outstanding and the other one, "Erosion", is excellent. After some careful listenings, one can establish the main differences with the other similar albums "Ever" and "Subterranea": The rhythmic clean guitar is omnipresent here and it definitely more sounds like the one on the JADIS albums. So, "This record is a clone of JADIS", will you say? Absolutely not! First of all, John Jowitt still plays a complex bass, much more than his accompanying contribution on the JADIS albums. Then, Orford's keyboards are still more complex and less accompanying than on the Jadis' "More Than Meets the Eye" album. Finally, let's say that Holmes' numerous melodic & emotional solos are like on the other previous albums: they have less the "guitar hero" style than Gary Chandler (JADIS): However, Holmes plays, like on "Subterranea", a solid hard rock rhythmic guitar, and this may make you slightly think about JADIS. Speaking of Orford's keyboards, I usually find them less subtle and elaborated here than on "Ever", and even than on "Subterranea": he uses more floating textures in the background, although there are some more elaborated solos and parts, like on the epics "Wrong Side of Weird" and "Guiding Light". He still uses some good organ & piano parts. His sublime intro on "Shooting Angels" is like the tenderness of a woman's touch. There are still some sentimental saxophone parts, like on "Shooting Angels" and "Zero Hour". The musicians are very intelligent and very emotional; they apply those 2 aspects in their songs: the result is a sentimental complex album that makes you dream awaken!

IQ is a band that has always progressed, and it seems they are now at their best!

EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED!