SCATTERED SHARDS

By modern standards a second album in three years is a pretty torrid pace. But perhaps we reviewers do matter, and accolades for their 2016 opus Dawn of Eternity inspired them to keep up the flame. Crystal Palace's style has evolved over the years, but Scattered Shards continues in the similar vein as its predecessor, offering an accessible mixture of dreamier and heavier passages coated with a mysterious vibe and warm vocals similar to RPWL and Porcupine Tree. It's clearly Pink Floyd and neo-prog inspired stuff, but just as well might be in bed with mainstream bands such as U2 or even Coldplay, if they were heavier and more complex. What the new album does lack, though, is the abundance of killer melodies that Dawn had, but its still above-average .