THE ART OF NAVIGATING BY THE STARS

A great, timeless record, with Markus Steffen (again) and Arno Menses (newbie). The merits of the Holzwarth brothers are beyond measure, as everone knows. Although (or maybe because) this is a very good record that belongs in every progger's household I had to kind of conquer it - and I still wrestle with two of the tracks (see below). Markus Steffen proves once more that he is the master of tasteful prog metal - when he is on form you won't anything better, just equal at best. But enough of the eulogy, on with the rating:

Navigating by the Stars / The Weight: With the thirty seconds of the intro gone we are greeted by the heaviest riff of the album. This wonderful 10 minute track is a true masterpiece and beyond the art of substantial description, just listen for yourself (5/5.)

The lonely view of Condors: The next masterpiece of tasteful bliss. the alternating slow/fast sections are to good to be true. (5/5)

Unbreakable:Problematic track no. 1 (at least for me). the introducing riff is a killer and if the rest of the song could keep the promise that riff made this track would have been a monster. So we finally end up with a fragile track where the instrumenatl sections don't really fit and everything reeks of showing-off. (3/5)

Stigmata: Has a very catchy and pleasant singalong chorus and again an instrumental section that has nothing to do with the things going on in the song (4/5).

Blue Wide Open: Problematic track no.2. This is a harmless avarage ballad, but this time the instrumental section is quite nice. (3/5)

To the Ones who have failed: The next masterpiece. Interesting shifting of the drummer between 6/8 and 7/8 bars. Everthing perfect with this track (5/5).

Lighthouse: An unexpected masterpiece. I recognized the value of this track only relatively late because the style is so mellow it caught me unawares. Reminds a bit of the mellower side of Yes. (5/5)

Styx: This track contains pretty many themes. It takes up the mood of the preceding song and then gets heavier. This is not as carefully crafted as the masterpieces on this album, but deserves attention (4/5).

So its 34 stars divided by 8 tracks (I don't count the intro) = 4,25 stars.

Get your hands on this one. Highly recommended!