IT'LL ALL WORK OUT IN BOOMLAND

Ferocious and chomping at the bit one moment, mellow dreamy passages in the next. It is in those dreamy vocals and nimble lighter moments where I am reminded of certain Caravan tracks, but before one gets too lost in hippie vibes the guitars will blow through your wall with Stooges attitude. Then some bluesy riffs will bring Alvin Lee and Ten Years After to your mind. Boomland is a decent enough hard rock album but I think its reputation is actually a bit more impressive than the work itself. This is not so much progressive as it is bluesy hard rock and I have to borrow a sentence or three from our own Reviewer Asyte2c00 who says it very well: "just because this album has a side-long epic does not make this a progressive rock album. It is simply a guitar driven, blues rock oriented jam. The blistering solos, courtesy of Keith Cross, are fast, and precise, but is nothing that I haven't heard before."[Asyte2c00] While I also agree with his 3 star rating I do believe many hard rock fans will love this album.

"In Circles" is the blistering opener and sums up everything about T2, full of "Immigrant Song" power and immediacy. Certainly a good song although Keith Cross is no Jimmy Page in my book, he has the power but lacks the emotional character in his leads. The song drags for too long with a fairly repetitive riff. Every garage band you knew growing up in your town had their own version of a hard jam like this, it's just not as stunning as some make it out to be. "J.L.T." is the shortest track and ironically the best song on the album. Here T2 puts more effort on songwriting than on trying to impress you with their crunchy chords. Starting with acoustic guitar and some very nicely done piano the song is more laid back and plaintive. It builds slowly but effectively showing some real dramatic development, building tension, then returning to the familiar piano melody. Some horns are added to the end that remind me of Caravan again. Great song! "No More White Horses" is the second best track with two main sections. One is another balls-to-the-wall jam with a Sabbath heavy riff that drives propulsive guitar and drum explosions. The other main part has a more laid back feel with horns, acoustic guitars and vocals. The piano is used effectively again at giving the song more depth. "Morning" is a full side-long epic beginning with acoustic guitars followed by well behaved bass and then nice vocals. Soon the drums and e-guitar are pushing things to the next gear. Over the course of next 20 minutes you are essentially on a jam roller-coaster that would make Cream turn their head and say "eh, who's that playing mate?" I enjoy it to be sure although to play devil's advocate I would like to hear more questions from the material. It's certainly confident but after listening to Melos the last few days this song lacks the prog mind-blow I want when a song demands 21 minutes of my time-the playing is unquestionably good but I want more than what I can get from any good hard rock album from that decade. It's a nice try but if you compare "Morning" to another epic of the period like "Nine Feet Underground" it becomes obvious which track is a wannabe.

Really a very solid album for those who love hard rock in the acid-guitar school, fans of the mentioned groups along with Zeppelin, Cream, and Hendrix fans are not going to be disappointed with this purchase. And for people who already like this, I have another suggestion: find an album called "Midnight Sun" by a band of the same name on this website. My prediction is that album will curl the toes of T2 fans-not that it sounds like T2 necessarily but sure shares the spirit. It's a lost gem of the highest order and a better album than this.

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