TRANSCENDENCE

1988 was a good year for for power and progressive metal. Operation: Mindcrime, Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. II, No Exit, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, ...And Justice For All, and Kings Of Metal were all released that year, along with the second album by Crimson Glory, Transcendence.

This album serves as one of the defining releases in prog power metal. It is one of the few "perfect" prog power albums which you can listen to from beginning to end without hitting the skip button. It truly is all killer and no filler.

Lyrically, the band tackles a variety of topics - a little bit of space opera, some social commentary on aids and communism, and some medieval imagery are all present. Compared to the sex-drenched follow-up Strange and Beautiful, Transcendence is genius in the lyrics department,.

At the center of the album is one of the few perfect metal singles, "Lonely." It's a tricky proposition for a prog power metal band to record and release a commerical single, but CG found just the right combination of catchiness and crunch in "Lonely." A recent re-issue includes the single mix of "Lonely," I and love the extra attention paid to the vocals in the song with counter singing. Unfortunately, the outro solo is snipped off in the sigle edit.

Midnight's vocals are often compared to Geof Tate's, but I hear more European influence there personally, There's a lot of King Diamond in his voice when goes into his high register. He is also a very emotional singer like Messiah (Candlemass), while Tate can sound very cold and clinical on QR's early albums.

The guitar work of Ben Jackson and Jon Drenning is fantastic. There are some really creative riffs and ripping solos. The two have a very good chemistry that shines throughout the disc. The rhythm section is also very tight, with the drumming very crisp and the bass providing real low end, not just echoing the guitar parts as many metal basists were doing at the time.

If you consider yourself a prog or power metal fan, this album should be in your collection, right alongside Images and Words, Rage For Order, Somewhere In Time, and No Exit, It's a shame they couldn't make it to the next level.