Grand, but lacking killer song

Reviewed January 2008

The new outing is well-played and interesting, and continues the theme of creating a prog rock for the alt generation – it has the same kind of operatically inclined grandiosity about it. Soaring themes and slowly building crescendos will remind listeners of a certain age of 1970s prog rockers like Queen, Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer.

But as with the first record, "I-Empire" has no killer song, no hit to get stuck in your head. Instead, it comes off like a Rush or Yes album with the hits removed.

As a concept album, it succeeds quite well. Dramatic, powerful, even visionary. That sense of compelling urgency will keep you hooked beginning to end – but without a memorable song or two, how likely are you to listen through again?

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).