CHILDREN

After having heard the other two albums of Ilúvatar I should say that this one is a big disappointment for me. The musicanship and performance is just as great as before and after this one but compared to the other albums the composition is much weeker here. No outstanding tracks like "Indian Rain" in ASTDW or "Eagle" in the self titled first release. Drums and some of the percussion sound like samples from a drum machine of a synth-pop band and it's the same throughout the whole album and annoys me a lot.

Glenn McLaughlin who has a voice like the mixture of Fish, Gabriel and Geddy Lee does a great job on this album as well. There are some great guitar solos here and there but overall it is an average album: only songs "Given Away" and the last two track bring the usual standard of this nice band.

Newcomers IMO should better start with the other two albums (preferably with "A Story Two Days Wide"). 2 stars.