AFTERGLOW

Afterglow is a very solid album and definately an album of the year canidate. The mood switches often from rocky to gentle to very medival at times. It creates a great listening experience in my opinion. On the first track, The Haywain, we are introduced to the medival sound that is soon to follow on the epic Imperial Winter White. This track brings to mind a mix of ELP and Gentle Giant but the final product somewhat sounds like The Flower Kings. This track maintains a good atmosphere which is what is most important to me. On Interlude we get a nice acoustic guitar break which gives us just what we need: a nice acoustic break. In Taberna is yet another epic which contains some amazing keyboards throughout the track ending in a very modern prog epic but always giving nods to the old-time greats. Armoury ends the album as a kind of summary for what just occurred: a nice prog album with excellent keyboards laden with medival sounds. I might not be voting for it on album of the year (give me a break, 2009 has been an awesome year!) , but it certainly deserves some votes. This is an outstanding album!