CROSSROAD

Crossroad´s is the debut album from the russian band Apple Pie. It´s really nice to see that the Russian prog rock scene is producing more and more professional sounding bands. Apple Pie sounds very professional even though Crossroads have a couple of flaws that keeps it from being excellent.

The music is very inspired by Spock´s Beard and Dream Theater ( Scenes From a Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and there are numerous examples throughout the album where I think I have heard the riffs before. A song like Nothing is bit too close to Dream Theater´s Another Day with the sax solo in the end and Temptation with it´s brass arrangement smells a bit too much of the James Labrie fronted Mullmuzzler´s Beelzebubba song from the Keep It to Yourself album. It´s not a complete ripp-off though. The music is very well played and composed and that saves this from being a bad clone experience. I have to mention that Crossroads is a concept story and I´m sorry to say that it´s a really pathetic seaching for the meaning in life/ praise God like story and I´m sick to my stomach whenever I listen to the lyrics. Still got my Faith in You is the worst example here with the gospel choir in the background.

The musicians are very well playing and it´s one of the most enjoyable things about Apple Pie. They are really good musicians.

The production is very good even though I miss the bass in the soundscape sometimes.

One of the previous reviewers nailed it very good when he wrote Images and Beards as a headline to his review. If Apple Pie wants more than 3 star ratings for making good compositions and playing them with conviction they need to make original music and keep away from the most obvious influences. I was even considering a 2 star rating because this is really not more than a good clone band, but on the other hand they are really good so I´ll go for a small 3 star rating.