CHESSBOARD

It's rather ironic that a band whose name means "time flies" should have nearly a decade pass between their second and third albums. Still, Chessboard proves to be more than worth the wait. An exuberant album in an IQ-inspired neo-prog mode, it might not be the most original thing out there, but as with the band's excellent debut the group more than make up for this with soaring performances and great compositions which grab the listener hard and don't let go until the last chord has sounded. With the emphasis so firmly on the instrumental sections, the portions with vocals are essentially punctuation, though vocals have never been the band's strong point so this is very much for the best.