This is the third album from Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater) on keyboards, and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) on guitar. The first two albums Moore had Mike Portnoy (his band mate from Dream Theater) on the drums, but this time Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) was on the skins. I’ve always found Moore a bit of an oddity as he shunned DT when success came their way after the Awake album, and he would reappear sporadically with his first solo project Chroma Key with the Dead Air For Radios which I really liked, and then this project. This project is sort of a cross between DT and Dead Air.
The first track, The Escape Artist, has a huge monster of a riff that would put DT to shame and really drives the track along, with Moore’s breathy vocals style over the top. Terminal is almost an electronic track with a cool groove and a simple quiet vocal. The fat huge heavy riffs return with False Start – this a real heavy sounding track. This is the pattern of the album, very heavy riff driven tunes interspersed with more intricate electronic pieces that seem to compliment each other perfectly. My two favourite tracks off the album are Radiologue, which is a groovy amalgamation of both styles, and the delightfully heavy groove of Be The Hero. Superb tracks! I really like Kevin Moore and I wish he would do more things.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
