NOT OF THIS WORLD

Somewhere in between the bombastic but engaging openers and the lovely olde Englishe sounding acoustic bonus material this album lapses into.....repetitive bombastic and less engaging material. The almost non stop accompanying wall of lead guitar and airy keyboards probably has something to do with it. The self absorbed solipsistic lyrics doubtless play a role. The incessant vocal and compositional references to 1970s Genesis don't help. So after the second "Dance of the Seven veils", pretty much everything is a repetition of what came before, either on the album or in prog history. If Pendragon has a leg up on some of their British neo compatriots, it is that they rarely try to infuse anything metallic into their mix, but some of the above shortcomings, and the fact that succinctness is largely left out of their playbook, largely negate this advantage.

As mentioned, out of the gate are several beautiful songs and suites that truly vary the tempo and rise above the fray, and the stripped down acoustic songs at the end are such a breath of fresh aire in contrast to the overly busy bulk of the disk. But by and large this is a pretty mediocre effort that is very much "of this world" of neo prog. 2.5 stars rounded down.