THE VISITOR

One of the better ones in this style of music IMO. I think this one works better than much of the other 80's style symphonic rock albums for two main reasons; it's darker and heavier. I personally think that bands like Pendragon and IQ work so hard at trying to make emotional music that they overdo it and it comes off sounding way too contrived and sappy. And while you could say that The Visitor itself touches on similar introspective, woe-is-me type self empathy, it adds to this a certain sense of darkness and even doom which, to my ears, is a welcome addition to a genre which overdid the weepy, I trusted you and you broke my heart stuff. I hear Queensryche influence on this album. And of course David Gilmour plays guitar on this one - (Oh really, that's not him??) I don't think any of the songs are bad here. The Hanging Tree is an extremely powerful piece of music with more soaring Gilmour(esque) soloing and a foreboding atmosphere. Number 2 on my list of best 80's symphonic rock, behind only Misplaced Childhood from Marillion. 3.5 stars easily.