SYNTHETIC

..."and not every album you enjoy will be a perfect masterpiece" warns the pop up after I assign a 5 star rating. Indeed that is true yet this album is a indeed a masterpiece. It's just simply perfect.

All of the elements that I love about progressive music are present in this album; the cinematic feel, the complicated songs full of twists, the solos and the dark back story. This album has all of these elements but does not over indulge in any of them, thus making is epic and interesting without ever sounding cheesy.

The songs vary significantly over the 80 minute effort from heavy, dark sounding riffs of Even in heaven to acoustic interludes of For all the wrong reasons. Douglas Skene's vocals go up like an eagle (or a pigeon to the blade to be more specific) and down to the smothering bass of Peter Steele. Both of the guitarists are fantastic, very technically proficient, without loosing emotion even in the fastest of sections. The drums patterns are interesting and the bass breaks away from the mentality of "just follow the guitar" and creates interesting counter melodies. Finally, the mixing of this album is crystal clear and well defined. The guitar tone is warm and organic, the snare drum is to die for the keyboards are fantastic both at the clear defined synth and the ambient atmospheric sounds and the bass is nice and high in the mix.

This is the best prog album that has left the shores of Australia. A must listen, you will not regret this purchase.