IMMORTAL?

Finding this disc in a discount section of a record store, I wasn't to sure if it was going to be a good purchase having only their first album, which I thought was decent but not my cup of tea. I took the splunge and can honestly say it compares in the quality of the recording but not in the quality of music. I don't think Sowden has a great singing range. He's relatively flat and in the category of Neo-prog with a heavy dose of singing as opposed to instrumentals, a good singer is a neccesity and on this point the band fails. Lyrically, it's interesting but Snowden doesn't get me involved. So nows it's up to the instrumentals to pull me in and on this note the music is hit or miss with bombastic semi-metal riffery, (Chosen) mixed with some very nice acoustic guitar, (Waiting For The Flood) not doing it for me mainly because it's been done before better by bands like Marillion (Climbing The Net) and IQ (Butterfly Man). "Moviedrome" is the highlight piece and epic on the album and the main reason to purchase the disc, especially if you're a fan of the band and in Neo in particular. It's one of the few tracks that suites Snowden's voice. He attempts a bit of melody to creep into his singing but his annoying fluttering-type warble still rankles me. It's a tad long but has nice bits of keyboard work by Nolan who gets a chance to shine in spots. The album ends with a ballad and fades. A decent album overall, but not one I'd pull out to often. 3 stars for the quality recording and well done playing.