BE

When I first reviewed this album I was just a newbie as a Prog reviewer and my writing skills were still very much limited. Now as I read my former short but praising review again I wasn't happy at all with it. Therefore I decided to write a new one. Well meanwhile two years after its release plenty has been written already about this exceptional work and actually I hate repeating what others have mentioned already. Nevertheless I'll try it, so here we go:

BE was causing lots of irritation after it came out, especially in metal circles where POS have been well-known as one of the best if not the best at all progressive metal bands ever, being proggy AND very heavy at the same time without exhibiting the usual pomp and self-indulgence but instead some extraordinary talents and skills. Understandably some fans of the band expecting TPE Pt.II were quite disappointed when they did a first rough scrolling through this album. Narrations - folk - gospel - classical piano - symphonic orchestra - sections bringing Broadway into mind - finally there's a metal riff, but what's that again? - Oh no, BE is not the type of album suitable for a hunter for snappy heavy metal riffs, although they are there definitely, beautifully woven into a gossamer made of haunting music emanating from most divers genres with an extremely ambitious and broad theme behind it, that is just LIFE and GOD. BE cannot be compared with other pompous rock/metal operas done already by numerous power/symphonic metal bands (i.e. Ayreon,Aina). Those records are nice in their own way and maybe great for someone who needs pomp in his Prog. Here there isn't such a thing, lots of emotion, yes certainly but never pretentious kitsch at any moment. I won't get into details about the individual tracks because this had been done already perfectly by other reviewers and especially I won't write about the lyrics and the concept since this would exceed the given frame here. Speaking about the compositions for sure there isn't much new to be be found on here for POS fans knowing very well their previous records but though I really admire this band and consider them as the very best one in that genre I've to admit I listened to their other albums by far not that often than to this one. Thus I was absolutely amazed and fascinated by this work right from the very first listen just because the way it has been done is that much different from their previous ones. As far as I know this magnum opus was a kind of experiment by Daniel Gildenlow and actually they presented it live already before the release of this album to test its acceptance. This performance has been released in the meantime as a DVD that I watched already as well a couple of times of course. As said musically there isn't that much new material on here. In fact I did not compare the individual tracks on here that squeamishly with some of their older ones as some people did but it's true many of them are sounding quite familiar. So I guess they were re-working some old material, fitting it into the concept and adding up some new stuff. But who likes to play God and blame them for doing this if the result looks and sounds like this? Just BE human and enjoy - I AM!

Coming to an end of my review I just can tell those people still wondering whether BE has to be considered the worst or very best work by this band: If you love heavy metal and you're new to this band don't buy this one but go for any of their first four studio outputs. Each of them is a perfectly done Progmetal album and more or less a masterpiece in this sub-genre on its own. BE on the other hand is their first real Prog album (generally spoken not in terms of metal) and that's why it HAS to be considered an exceptional masterpiece of PROGRESSIVE MUSIC. I think any prog lover will have great pleasure with this one even after 100's of repeated spins just because it's a piece of art you'll fall in love with if you just allow to get captivated by it.

Edited 8/4/2006