THE ART OF NAVIGATING BY THE STARS

If you are looking for the return of the 90's era Sieges Even, move on. Sieges Even sounds nothing like the succinct technical metal band they once were. Fortunately, certain reminiscent elements of the old sieges even style still remain. The song structures are quite interesting, and many of the melodies are formed similar to the way the band used to do it. A fair amount of instrumentals remain as well. As much as it pains me to say it, the vocal arrangements sound like CCM at times. The lyrics are the ultimate failure of the album. Myself, I am not one that typically puts too much emphasis on the lyrical quality of the music, but at times the lyrics are so amateurish on this album that I can't enjoy the rest of the music. For example, the chorus of track 6 is: "riding on a sea spray, falling from the sky, riding on a sea spray, blue wide open sea and sky." And too much of the album is like this. The vocals are poetic, but ultimately vague and meaningless. It's really not as bad an album as I think I've made it sound, but in years to come this album will be forgotten. Though the music is high caliber, it doesn't have the lyrical qualities needed to make it excellent. If you want to hear Sieges Even at their best, try to find Sophisticated...or let's all hope Inside Out will buy the copyrights and reissue it.