THE ROBBERY OF MURDER

This is a very capable narrative concept album from Salem Hill, with a sound reminiscent of less obvious neo-prog influences such as Discipline's Push and Profit and the more majestic portions of The Sentinel by Pallas. David Ragsdale's contributions on violin helps shake things up and distinguish the group's sound from the rest of the neo-prog crowd, whilst the actual execution of the concept is one of the better I've seen in a concept album.

The story is, at its heart, very simple - a man is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and whilst the drunk driver responsible is consumed by guilt the bereaved son of the victim plans to kill him in revenge - but the band do an excellent job of creating emotional snapshots of each of the major participants in the story. The plot is just interesting enough to sustain itself over the course of the album, whilst not being so complex as to be difficult for a first-time listener to follow. Even better, musically speaking there's more or less no filler, making this one of the better concept albums to come out of the neo-prog scenes.