RESISTANCE

I removed my original review because I believed the album was growing on me. But truthfully, it was not. The Road of Bones is one of my favorite releases or the last decade (at least the first/main disc). Well after 5 years they finally followed it up, and man, what a major disappointment. The album has a very odd structure, obviously some will disagree, but if you ask me it's just way too long. Having 3 epics on one album is tiring for me, and I cant see a case where I would ever sit down and listen to this album start to finish. I think what they did on the first disc of road of bones is ideal, they had their one BIG epic and had a somewhat half epic for a grand finale and things were kept under and hour. Unfortunately here, they just tread the water of past albums and in turn it just sounds like another IQ album.

The first disc is mostly comprised of the shorter songs accompanied by the first epic "For Another Lifetime." A big issue I have is the amount of downtime in between each song. For some reason it feels like every song has around a total of 2 minutes of ambient nothingness at the start and finish. Another issue is that the songs just tend to sound very samey and lack life. Generally, each song will start with some slow keyboard thing accompanied by some vocals. After a few minutes the guitar and drums will come in with some heavy riff and the singer will get louder. Rinse and repeat. I enjoy the first two tracks, but my mind always drifts by the time "Stay Down" rolls around. Eventually "If Anything" rolls around and I think that's the only track that I can really call "bad." It sounds like a cut off of Genesis's We Cant Dance, and thats not an accolade you want to have. Next we come to epic #1: For Another Lifetime. It takes while to get going with this kinda awkward and uncomfortable carnival-esque keyboard motif going on for a few minutes. When it finally starts up it just kinda feels like a discount Without Walls. Only without the epic peak of that song. Probably the best of the 3 epics however, because the ending guitar solo is a pretty nice payoff and the moment when it actually kicks into the song is pretty neat, but not much inbetween sticks with me.

The Great Spirit Way is another, VERY long winded effort that just doesn't have a real payoff. Instead it just ends with another couple minutes of ambience. It's another case where I just feel like i'm listening to a textbook IQ song. To draw another comparison to Without Walls, that song has several distinct memorable passages. With TGSW, I can't find anything memorable within it, I feel like I've heard all this stuff before. I can't even tell where it ends most the time as it fades right into the next song. Fire and Security and Perfect Space both just sound like cuts off disc one, not memorable in any way. Fallout is the third and final epic of the album and it once again follows the same formula of starting with a few minutes of quiet keyboard and vocals. However, by far, the biggest disappointment of this album is the payoff, or lack thereof on this song. They build up and you expect a big playout of something, but instead, they just end on a single note followed a couple minutes of ambiance.

This album is plagued with formulaic songwriting and downtime. The musicianship is good as is the production, But I just find this album incredibly mediocre somehow. The abundance of 5 star reviews is shocking to me. I cannot recommend this album, stick with Road of Bones or past projects.

I am giving this two stars. I was initially at 3, but upon another re-listen, I hate to say it, but I just don't like this album and can't see this album convincing anybody who didn't like IQ before, thus for fans only.