SMPT:E

A brave honest performance, filled with sentiment and originallity. Mike Portnoy is getting more and more matture, because after recording the LTE albums he focused into a more complex but slower music, avoiding his trademerk blasting double-bass patterns and creating great figures in the drums. The rest of the pack is simply perfect, in bass Pete gets more attention, in guitars Roine gets involved with the keys and Neil embraces the whole music into the vocals... the perfect point for all the members to express a different and personal point of view about prog-music. This is exactly what the fans of the four mother bands we've been waiting, a matture collection of songs with NO specific background.