PASSION

Well- regarding of the recent years- I thought of finding myself through a new uneven project once again... don't get me wrong, I mean, their identity has been remarked as a coherent music approach during the last years, I have to recognize; but unfortunately the same project has been also "trapped" into its stagnation (until the issue of "Not of this world" at least) - and this feature is still quite disappointing for me, when I think of it!!.

Nevertheless, even though my "benchmark" suitable to evaluate their new effort is always represented by "The Masquerade Overture" (perhaps their magnum opus, among many other "derivative" Neo-Prog works, with its merits and "shortcomings" in the same time), now probably this "Passion" is a new term of comparison for their future works.

The songwriting is good, sometimes looking forward a sort of mysticism, a bit strident but quite emotional in the vocal parts (actually the weak point of all the Pendragon's albums, but nevermind...) and moreover it's able to be "expressive" and a bit "imaginative" too.

In my opinion They are able to maintain the same mood like in the acclaimed "Pure" and, in spite of their "artistic" improvement, They haven't completely abandoned the old style of "Believe", a bit repetitive in their main melodic lines...anyway the opener title track rocks in a convincing manner and perhaps "This Green and Pleasant Land" as well, apart from the first minutes, quite mellow and a bit boring. In fact this latter epic number, being developed better than their previous song "Empathy" (when I hear Clive singing I'm not so happy, even though the mood is the same like in the title track) is characterized by the best guitar playing by Nick Barret (think also of "Feeding Frenzy ) and their vocalism is better than their old works mentioned above. However their style is evolving now towards a more personal music characterization and let me give them a 3 stars inside a true prog discography and 4 stars within an easier Neo-Prog discography.

Make your own choice, according to your liking!!