THE MOUNTAIN

While the members of this band are clearly and undoubtedly a talented bunch, I don't quite understand the gushing of praise heaped upon this album. I have previously heard the debut, but not the follow-up ('Visions'), and indeed there are improvements in some areas from that album- as others have noted, there's less of the sudden, out-of-place shifts to 'circus jazz', and the band is generally stronger and more confident. However, the same tropes abound- prog metal in the usual vein, with all of the shallow attempts at creating deep emotion (or at least, so it feels to me). They've expanded their sound to some new areas- much lauded is the 'influence' of Gentle Giant in the vocal harmonies of 'The Cockroach King'- but to be frank, to me it sounds less like an influence and more like straight taking the GG approach to interweaving harmonies and plonking it down in the middle of their song, more of a rip-off to my ears.

However, fans of the previous releases should enjoy this album, regardless. 2 stars.