THE PROG COLLECTIVE: EPILOGUE

Their second studio release is slightly harder and more complex than the debut, and even more guest prog superstars are involved. But the idea of a 'prog collective' remains the same: Billy Sherwood composed, produced, performed, recorded and engineered all the music, and other contributors played just auxiliary role, i.e. did some additional playing and singing. Some listeners say they were disappointed, they expected much more from an album with two dozens of guest musicians like Rick Wakeman, Alan Parsons, Tony Caye, Steve Hillage etc. Perhaps Mr Sherwood made a tactical mistake by introducing them all as a real supergroup. A listener should not expect anything from this album apart from the music written by Billy Sherwood. It's not a cooperation of prog protagonists, it's not even 'Billy Sherwood and friends', it's almost exclusively Billy Sherwood himself. And if we perceive the idea of The Prog Collective adequately to what it is in fact, we must admit that Epilogue is a very good album, musically more interesting than the debut. At least as for me, I cannot say that Sherwood & Co. deceived my expectations, I enjoyed both their albums very much and was happy to add the vinyl versions to my collection.