THE SEVENTH HOUSE

IQ

Neo-Prog

4.01 | 768 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

BrufordFreak

More diluted lushness and vocal monotony of the GENESIS and then there were three ilk.

1. "The Wrong Side Of Weird" (12:24) poor rendering of sound--especially drums and bass. Nothing very exciting or fresh here. (19/25)

2. "Erosion" (5:43) keys sounds still stuck in the 90s. Nice lull and kick into full blast at 2:00--but falls flat after that. Excellent guitar solo in the fourth minute. (8.25/10)

3. "The Seventh House" (14:23) the jewel of the album and one of the best 50 LP Prog Epics of the 2000s. After an awesome opening third, it kind of grows stale, feels drawn out, and the finish does not live up to the promise of the opening. (26/30)

4. "Zero Hour" (6:57) basic rock ballad, with all the elements of a nice 1970s or 1980s classic rock hit (except for the fretless bass right up in front). The attempt at an eerie middle instrumental section fails miserably. (11/15)

5. "Shooting Angels" (7:24) after Martin Orford's keyboard solo intro for the long intro, a double-thumping rhythm track gets laid out like a 1970s power rock ballad (think Loverboy). The mid-section interlude kind of repeats the opening with some other support and Peter Nicholls singing over the top. This is followed by a return to the double-thump rhythm motif while Mike Holmes plays a very restrained (and boring) lead guitar solo. (10.5/15)

6. "Guiding Light" (9:58) Peter Nicholl's vocal melody is far too driven by Martin Orford's electric (MIDI-ed) piano beneath. In the third minute there is a little shift in which Peter and Martin's melody lines diverge (thank god!). This is nice (if quite GENESIS-like). At the 3:30 mark there is a radical shift into old rock motif for the bridge into a nice instrumental section (nice Steve Hackett-like lead guitar work). Nice finish (nice Peter Nicholls vocal). (16/20)

Total Time: 56:49

C/three stars; a solid assemblage of Neo Prog music--a fair addition to any prog lover's music collection, but by no means anything NeoProg lovers should be shouting about.

BrufordFreak | 3/5 | 2011-1-10

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