THE BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST

The previous record "A" made a major change among the Tull work: the presence of modern futuristic keyboards sounds, which fitted very well with their more conservative style. Unfortunately, Eddie Jobson did not continue with Tull, so the next keyboardist involved had to be very talented to replace Jobson. Thanks God, Tull hired Peter John Vetteese, and actually it is hard to find a better keyboardist than Vetteese to reproduce the Jobson's style. His very varied futuristic keyboards palette fits very well here with the prog hard rock tendency; there are many excellent keyboards & piano parts here. Martin Barre's electric guitar is quite aggressive, expressive and melodic, but not too much so that the flute, the acoustic guitars and the keyboards really have enough room. The tracks are very melodic & catchy, not extremely progressive, and Anderson's lead vocals are excellent, as always! The drums and bass do a good job. All the tracks are excellent. I have to mention the tracks are really accessible: it is one of the most accessible Tull albums! The songs are catchy, and even many metal fans could easily like this record.

Rating: 4.5 stars