WINDOW DRESSING

This is a mixture of an album, but with enough excellent material to merit 4 stars. The opening epic an title track is powerful and varied, and the cd ends with the superb 'Spindrift' with its heavy riffs and wonderful King Crimson-esque instrumental exploration in the middle. 'Capture the Flag' is another good 9-minute piece, while there are also three catchy shorter heavy tracks, 'Remember to Forget', 'All She Knows' and 'Paintings'.

Now the bad news! The rest of the album ranges from ordinary to awful. 'Slippers in the Snow' and 'Tear-Water Tea' are quieter songs but very ordinary, the latter not even lifted above mediocrity by the presence od Discipline's Matthew Parmenter on violin. Of the three short instrumentals , 'Stop Gap' is reasonable, 'A.02' is too lightweight to matter, and 'Unicornucopia' is just dreadful.

However, take these poorer tracks out, and you have an excellent 6-track, 50-minute prog-metal album.