MOVING PICTURES

My expectations to this album were high after I heard 'Farewell to Kings' which I really like, but it fails to live up to it. Generally this album is a Hard Rock album with some prog (and AOR) leanings. There are some guitar-equilibrismo a la Satriani in this album.:

Tom Sawyer: Starts with a AOR-like verse but evolves into more interesting themes. It has good dynamics, and good riffs. And a good recurring theme, and good keyboard

/ bass playing. Ends up in a 7/8 part. Very prog. The best track on the album (4 stars)

Red Barchetta: Starts like a ballad, but evolves into som AOR with heavy chorused guitar riffs. (3. stars).

XYZ: Satriani-like instrumental, starts in a funky way, later a guitar solo in the frygian scale, in the middle part it opens up with keyboard-figures. Nice. (3' star)

Limelight: Plain boring hard-rock. Not interesting (2' star)

The Camera Eye: The epic of the album. It is The biggest dissapointment of the album, but that is because the expectations were so high when I compare it with 'Xanadu' from FTK. Promising start though. but from the point where the singing starts I begin loosing my focus. The theme is not strong enough.And tThough there are interesting parts through the whole song, they are not tied very good together as a piece. Not dynamic, the drumming is rather monotonous (3 stars)

Witch Hunt: A dark hard-rock, almost heavy-metal track with good drumming . Not very proggy (3 stars)

Vital signs: The guitar playing style reminds me of good old POLICE, Poppy. (3. stars)

Conclusion: A good album for the fans of the genre (and especially the band). The fan of prog, searching for new experiences should stick to "Farewell to kings". I feel myself left cold after hearing this album, it is not moving in the samme style like 'Farewell'. Maybe it is because I find the prog influences too low here

3 stars