ISOLATE

Wups.. I have a mixed feeling about this album. There are great progressive tracks in this album, but few other tracks are quite light.

Opening track 'A Darkened Mind' is my favourite track of this album. The song is opened by a killer guitar riff, anthemic but dark and heavy at the same time ? which sets the entire mood of the song. Great instrumental section in the middle of the song.

'Sane No More' is a great instrumental track with a lot of mood and tempo changes. Guitar and keyboards are dominating with many tasty phrases. This is a typical CM sounds that still resemble the 1st Chapter, that I really like.

'Mouth of Madness' is the epic track of the album. It lasts almost 13 minutes. The song theme is very nice, introduced in the beginning of the song by keyboards accompanied by acoustic guitar. After a verse, the song theme is played in darker sound and mood. Michael Eriksen voice is well explored in this song. There are several stunning guitar solos in the second half of the song.

'Ultimate Sacrifice' is a well structured 9-minute composition and has a lot of great elements : from the powerful intro, great guitar and keyboards solos and symphonic elements.

The rest of the songs are lighter in composition but still there are some good moments, particularly Mats Haugen guitar work that consistently gives a profound influence in the CM music. Overall it is a enjoyable album, but CM has shift a bit its orientation to be more simplistic musically.