BELIEVE

With a wonderful, strong opening as "Believe", a song started with Celtic flavor of a woman's voice, Pendragon launch their latest effort with a lot more confidence. And indeed they hit the mark.

Four years after taking a break, the neo-prog band founded in 1983 still managed to bring a set of very well-constructed songs, which are powerful in melody and rich in harmony. They are even flawlessly arranged. Take no farther than the second track, "No Place for the Innocent". A catchy, rocking tune, this surely is going to be a surprise for old fans and progressive rock enthusiasts as well.

Taking advantages of the first two tracks, the band extend the range of their formula still further and take the overall album to the higher level. These attempts are embodied into superb tracks such as "Wisdom of Solomon", a great political song with wonderful acoustic guitar passages, and, most importantly, the only real epic bore the elements fans always love about Pendragon, "The Wishing Well".

This album generously rewards the listeners with marvelously crafted music. And it should be in the buying list of, at least, neo-prog fans.