It’s official – prog has taken over the world. It oozes out of this album’s every pore and the band make no attempt to either hide or disguise it. Indeed, they have positively embraced it, stating “We know that singles are driving the market and we don’t care.”
This is an album you can listen to for a week or a month at a time. It’ll play out in your head even when you’re not playing it. Bits of it will come back to you even when you’re not thinking about it. This, then, makes the album their A Night At The Opera or their Automatic For The People. It’s got both tone and depth. The obvious singles just happen to be singles; they’re not consciously sculpted as such. One could easily hear Freddie Mercury humming these tunes. Like Queen, these guys can go from pop to prog and back again without even batting an eyelid.
And, best of all, there is a real ferocious power to the heart of this record. This will get the brain thumping and the sweat glands secreting right from the get-go. It’s like someone playing a concert in your from room and it’s wonderful.