SONGS FROM THE LIAR'S LAIR

Being a big fan of progressive metal like Dream Theater and Queensryche, I must admit that this years best album so far, surprisingly comes from a band which has been labeled as neo-progressive here at Prog Archives. This album has it all: Dark passages, triumphant moogsolos, soaring guitars, rich choruses and furious drumming. The strongest elements though, are the compositions and the rich arrangements. For me, the highlights are both epics running close to ten minutes, but the whole album flows like a one great piece of music with all the changes and effects nicely sitting in their rightfully selected places. You can hear echoes from some 70's most famous progressive bands like King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath etc. But they're just echoes, as the concept is quite original and very entertaining. The vocal parts are clear and varied, sounding from softer/warmer tones to hardest screams (even to a David Bowie/Peter Hammil type of growling).

I can warmly recommend this album and it's getting better with repetitive listening, which is hard to say about most of the modern releases...