ACT III: LIFE AND DEATH

To a certain degree, i'm sure this beautiful angst of 2009 can be compared to the geniusly crafted the Wall. I read from somewhere that Crecenzo doesn't like Prog music, but who cares. It's a brainchild of one dominating mind in the band. To a certain degree, both has the elements of anti-war sentiment and are rich in sarcasm. Musically I think the Wall is extremely well-written piece of music but not focusing on the musical virtuosity (yes, the Wall has some of the world's greatest gutiar solos of all time, but they are nowhere as complex as anything John Pettruci or those lighning fast chops would come up.) The strength of Act III is in overall composition, not in monstrous solos (although instrumentals are pretty well performed). Both are concept albums with very emotional lyrics and brilliant vocal perfomance.

Finally, The Tank and The Trial are very, very similar employing strings. They happen to be my most favorite tracks off the respective album. With the typical soundscapes of music and music technologies in early late 2000's, this is what Roger Waters may come up if he is the same age with Crescenzo today.

The comparison ends here. Other than that, I agree with other reviewers that ACT III is a vast improvement from its two predecessors, both in composition and in performance. I too would be surprised if Act IV can top this one. The diverse musical influence raning from acapella, cabaret, jazz etc. What else can the man do for the next three albums without treading the same paths?

Gatot has done a very detailed and superb track by track review so i see no point to repeat that. Weak tracks in my opinions are What It Means to be Alone and This Beautiful Life. These are by no means fillers but just weaker in comparison to other tracks. Absolutely wonderful tracks are the very strong opening Writing on the Wall, The Tank, The Poison Woman, He Said He Had a Story, and the last four tracks are a brilliant climbing up to climatic finale of this album.

I only have two complaints for this. Unfortunately the two important P's in marketing. The Packaging. I'd prefer better thicker paper on the cover as this one will surely go soft in the next two years. The text in the lyric cards (yeah, not booklet) are super hard to read. The last complaint is the Price (for delivery). The official shop of Triple Crown charges criminally for overseas shipping. But these two complaints cannot stop me from giving this album the entire five stars as it's so essentially a masterpiece.

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