THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME

Generally lacking in any interesting moments, perhaps I will be flamed for this review, but regardless. This is an output that is good to have for jazz fusion lovers, but what it really lacks is tact.

If I was to point to one album which makes me wonder why everyone can not stand Dream Theater/LTE or other various offshoots, it would be this work, which actually makes DT look good(what a surprise); and makes me wonder why so many hate them, but love this. The majority of Inner Mounting Flame is a roller coaster of techinically advanced playing, with little interest in band dynamics, but rather instead, to merely play something that is advanced.

The album lacks soul, it's cold and distant from the listener, and not cold and distant in an artistic, beautiful way, but in an offish manner. The listener may begin to wonder if this is really an album output or an advanced jam session.

For all the things that people complain about in LTE, the incessant noodling, the lack of powerful passages that capture our attention, all of that can be found here, right in this album, to the tenth degree. Still, most definitely one of the go to albums of the fusion empire. However, the concept of "art" is lost on McLaughlin and his crew.