THE BROADSWORD AND THE BEAST

Cleaving back towards a more distinctly rock-oriented, Jethro Tull-esque sound than A (which at points sounded more like a mashup of Jethro Tull and Eddie Jobson's contributions to UK), The Broadsword and the Beast finds the band refusing to keep "Living In the Past" and instead make a game attempt to integrate 1980s-esque synthesisers (and the musical techniques that had been developed around them) into their musical framework.

This may explain why it gets a bit of a mixed reception; compared to pretty much any preceding album of theirs, it's certainly a significant musical shift. Nonetheless, I think they do a fine job of deriving a rich Tull-esque atmosphere out of the equipment. Is it as groundbreaking as Aqualung or as solid as Songs From the Wood? No, but it's a damn good album despite that and more immediately interesting than, say, Stormwatch or War Child.