BEWARE OF DARKNESS

The album starts off very well with a soothing melotron and Meros's Squire-like bass, Morse then begins to sing in his distinct style, Alan Morse's guitar can grate at times but the song is beautiful and very well done. Next up is "Thoughts", the Beard's first Gentle Giant inspired song, absolutely creepy and wonderful at the same time..Excellent! "The Doorway" starts out with some nice piano and acoustic guitar, lots of soft areas which reminds me very much of the previous album, "The Light". A guitar instrumental called "Chatauqua" is next which sounds very good. "Walking On The Wind" rocks Gentle Giant like with that Squire bass giving it a very nice Yes sound. Fantastic track! "Waste Away", unfortuately has one of the worse opening lines I've heard yet in prog, "Some people are like gravy/spilled on God's Sunday shirt." UGH!! The only saving grace on this one is the keyboard that runs throughout, otherwise it's a stinker."Time Has Come" is Beatle-like in spots and is the longest track on the album. It's your typical long track, nice keyboard, guitar and drum displaying, a tad too long with Morse's voice distorted towards the end but okay overall. So, in a nutshell, it has some of their best material (Thoughts, Walking On The Wind & The Doorway) but their better overall albums are ahead. (3.5 stars)