NOT OF THIS WORLD

In 1997 another live album by Pendragon was released, ''Live in Kraków 96'', recorded in Poland (and later issued by Metal Mind in DVD format), which became one of the favorite destionations of the band.What followed though would have a huge impact on Pendragon's next studio release.Nick Barrett had to face the procedure of a long and painful divorce, a reality that influenced him on the writings of ''Not of this world''.Propably this sad experiene was the reason Pendragon would wait for a number of years to launch the album, which was released in 2001.

While the familiar Pendragon style dominates the album, let's get one thing clear: This is definitely one of the most emotionally loaded albums of the group, Nick Barrett's divorce being the main reason, serving as a somewhat autobiographical release.The huge display of sentimental vocals, the constant use of dreamy keyboard and piano parts and the obvious tendency towards atmospheric and melodious textures are the instant reflections of the fact.As a result they sound as close as it gets to GENESIS circa 76'-77' and mid-70's PINK FLOYD, offering extended, melodic pieces with smooth guitar plays and lovely synthesizer work by Nolan.On the other hand the choice of such a switch resulted to a reduced exhibition of symphonic arrangements and more complicated parts, the second being far from the band's priorities.The sound is less epic and more into melodic Neo Prog, but with such extended running times some more grandiose parts would be unavoidable.In pleasure of the band's thousands of fans worldwide the longer pieces still contain some powerful keyboard parts, some bombastic sections and some trully efficient guitar solos with the flawless touch of Nick Barrett.It is unbelievable that at this point Pendragon still sound like an 80's group, never giving up to the light symphonic aura and pure energy of the early Neo Prog movement, the atmosphere is great throughout and the melodies are mostly of first class.

Nice little treasure with GENESIS, PINK FLOYD and even some discreet CAMEL overtones.Among the most melodic albums of the British veterans, this would be a masterpiece if some of these melodies were left behind for a more symphonic approach, but this is still a strongly recommended and solid effort by the band...3.5 stars.