TREASON

Some guy on Amazon.com described this album as 'disastrous' or some other synonym of a similar regard, and after deciding to ignore his comment (I'm assuming it's a guy here, it could well have been one of those non-guys) and going ahead and listening to the album I can honestly say his opinion is BS.

Yes, this album is like none other of Gryphon's albums before, the more eclectic nature and construction of their songs is sidelined and the band have moved into a more commercially acceptable vein which clearly isn't to a purist's taste, but you can't call this proto-prog, it's just possibly the least progressive prog album out.

Gryphon still manage to dazzle with sophisticated passages of musicianship as heard on 'Snakes and Ladders' and 'Flash in the Pantry' but also manage to blend in some gentler and more relaxing numbers such as 'Fall of the Leaf' and 'Major Disaster'.

The magnum opus though is obviously 'Spring Song', a delightful 10 minute song which manages to combine both styles Gryphon play in on this album and really is a fantastic track to my ears.

Praise aside, some of the vocals aren't the greatest I've ever heard. The harmonies don't quite work in places and are an acquired taste as I did find them difficult to listen to to begin with.

I'm going to rate this 4/5 because I although I absolutely adore this album and find it difficult to take out of my CD player I just can't rate it 5/5 because that would mean rating it higher than 'RQTG3' which I'd chose to save first in a house fire any day.