ONE AMONG THE LIVING

Well as usual it's difficult to rate a work of Neo-Prog, like the present one, cause you can find some interesting features within (above all the vocals) as well as a few common places, which could be a minor defect at the end...I figure that for example the old Styx should play in the manner of "Mystery" if They were a true melodic prog band. In fact this Canadian band can show some intelligent lyrics and quite strong guitars too, apart from a few more accessible moments!! This is their best album, after "Beneath the Veil of Winters Face", and it's not a pretentious work like for instance the debut album by Hamadryad (these latter looking for the modern version of Gentle Giant). Otherwise for me the compositions are not powerful enough like the best albums by Rush (above all "Farewell to Kings" and "Hemisphere"), but this album is never banal or too much easy (I forgive so many bands anyway for this kind of defect, like those ones inside a few albums by Saga or Pallas for instance, so I will not criticize Mystery also in this case...).

At the end They cannot exagerate their virtuosity, but the prog features are always present here...so I can add an half star (maximum, cause their work lacks of creativity), but you know that I prefer the complex works of progressive music and- after all- as for this reason my opinion is a little bit affected only...nevermind, you can check this album out anyway!!

(even though the evaluation could be "four stars", inside a collection of pomp rock/AOR)