Well, I took the album for a few spins.
The pros:- Derek's keyboard sounds are a rare treat. Hearing a classic Hammond & Leslie, plus real analog synths in a modern sounding metal album has been a longtime desire of mine, and the album delivers on this front. Still, it could be better, Derek distorts that organ way too much, to the point where it almost sounds "fake" (as in digital). But I'll take what I can get.
- Some good melodies and neat moments here and there, everyone gets their chance to shine. I squeezed out some fun from every single track, except for Opus Maximus, which is a total throwaway.
The cons:- Without going into detail, this is basically a poor man's post-2007 Symphony X with a hard rock edge.
- I think I have MP-fatigue. The drumming is so familiar that it's a problem for me at this point. I actually realized this not while listening to PS, but when I popped in So Far Gone by The Neal Morse Band (which is a far better song than anything on PS -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL5u8nCI8FY). MP almost ruins it with the same-y, overdone drum fills. Having an entire album filled with the same old bag of tricks is tiresome.
Some observations:-
Figaro's Whore spawned from Deep Purple's Hey Joe -
https://youtu.be/DPbEXzQPYAc?t=7s. Why? I have no idea.
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Labyrinth has the ELP Fanfare for the Common Man synth at 2:30, which was a nice touch.
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Divine Addiction structurally is the exact carbon copy of Perfect Strangers, from the organ intro right to the exotic/operatic outro. Still my favorite song on the album.
- At first,
God of the Sun's main riff almost sounds like it's in odd-time, but it's actually in 4/4. One of those rare riffs that can pull this off. Still comes off as a bit generic.
That's it. Maybe it will grow on me in the future, but at this point, I don't feel like revisiting it too much. No real depth, it was a rushed, phoned-in, rough-and-ready effort, and it shows. My 16-yeard-old self, who only listened to Deep Purple and ELP, would have probably loved it, but it falls short for my current self.