THE SEVENTH HOUSE

On the whole, it's a lot of fun. It takes the usual IQ trappings and turns them into another album with some catchy chorus melodies. The instruments backed off from their powerful presence on Ever, making way for less complicated, less well-constructed songs on the whole. On its own, it would make a good album, but with the presence of other IQ songs that clearly show that the band has found its rut and wants to play in it for a long time, it no longer is quite as special of a release as it could be. Still, for a band in what some consider one of the most stale genres out there, they do challenge themselves enough with bits here and there to make The Seventh House and album worth owning and listening to. It could be stronger, yes, but it does well with what it has.

The Wrong Side of Weird kicks off the album, and though it is a good song with some clever melodies, it sounds a lot of like every song IQ made before it. The title track is a very standard IQ epic. Zero Hour is very standard as well. There are some moments of higher interest, however, where the band isn't just sounding like IQ. The beginning of Shooting Angels, for example, features some 80s sounding heavy drum work. Later in the song, a saxophone appears and adds what its got to the music. Erosion features some heavy rhythm guitar and a number of almost perfect melodies, being the strongest song on the album. Guiding Light opens with some gentle piano a la Firth of Fifth, but quickly segues into a full-blown song. Parts of the song feature some odd keyboard sounds, almost giving it a circus feel.

In the end, fans of IQ need this album. Fans of neo-prog probably need this album too. If you haven't listened to the band before, Ever is a wiser path to take as a first listen, but this album can follow it pretty rapidly.

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