THE SONGS & TALES OF AIROEA BOOK 3: MAGICAL CHRONICLE (ASCENSION)

My first impressions of "Book III" were that Andreas is sounding more like Jon Anderson than he did on the first two books and that the instrumental music of this record follows more in line with "Book I" but pales somewhat in comparison. I am very happy to own "Book I" and it's in my top 60 "best of" Symphonic list. Now this appreciation came after I reviewed it after deciding I needed to go back with fresh ears. I had this so overhyped in my own mind that I was quite hard on it initially. So glad I took it for a couple of more spins. "Book II" is another story(haha) this one is about water, but man It's by far my least favourite.

"Book III" connects to the air, the sky, with titles like "Skyslumber", "Cloudship" and "Empress Of The Sun". There's a reduced role for Lars Fredrik Froislie as he's not listed as a guest this time. My favourite track is "Empress Of The Sun" an under 5 minute beauty. Upbeat is the word with energetic vocals. It will settle back some but this is the most powerful track on here. Organ as well makes an appearance.

"Cloudship" I have mixed feelings about because it's quite YES sounding but it's also a beautiful symphonic piece. Some spoken words and some percussion like we're travelling although this is a cloudship. The closer "Lost In The Palace Gardens" is the longest at 8 minutes but my least favourite. It's still good I just have trouble getting into it. Not so with those first two tracks "Magical Chronicle" and "Skyslumber" both are excellent but a notch below the music on "Book I".

This is a 4 star album for me but just barely, Too good though to drop it to 3 stars in my opinion but a low 4 stars.