THE MYTH OF DYING

With this collection of excellent songs inspired by a personal near-death encounter, The Myth of Dying encapsulates, once again, an excellent album concept by this enigmatic but uber-talented composer-musician. Though the TPE sound will not become fully refined until the next album, The Dream of The Magic Jongleur, nor will the whole-album concept be seemlessly conjoined until the album after that, The Tale of The Golden King, TPE has recorded and produced a wonderful collection here of which my favorites are "Canto II: Transcendence," the psychedelia-infused lead guitar and synths of the gentle, acoustic guitar-based "Canto VII: The Realm of Skeptics," and the beautiful, classically-based "Canto VIII: The Mysterium of The Divine."

A 3.5 star album that I'm rating up for it's intricate compositions and single-person performances of most of these tracks.