I'm listening to the new album right now for the first time. It's an impressive piece of work so far. Right now I'm loving the track, A Mead Hall in Winter. They take you through so many twists and turns throughout the song. Besides the obvious Peter Gabriel-style vocals, the music reminds me of everything from Kansas to Pink Floyd to Gentle Giant. These guys never disappoint.
"A Mead Hall In Winter" just might be the track of the album for me, and not just because it's the longest song, but because it just has so many great moments and the way they get into the chorus with its soaring vocal melody just hits me in all the right spots. The lyrics are very romantic too, and I like their songs like that. Everything about AMHIW is just spot-on.
I too got the huge Kansas-vibe in "Brave Captain", as well as an Hogarth-era Marillion vibe in the middle of that song, where David's vocals are using an effect and it's a rising melody with a great build-up - VERY Marillion-ish there! These guys all definitely hit some influential vibes but do it all in a way that keeps it consistent and unique to BBT and doesn't smell of cheap-rip-off-ness.
Sorry I think I missed something, what is the Station Masters please?
According to what I can find on the band's blogspot, it was first announced back on a blog post back in September 2013:
"We have commenced work on a new album as well as the Station Masters retrospective and Nick returns to England at the end of September for some more recording."
After that, the next mention of it was a few months later in January of 2014:
"Alongside our Real World preparation we are well into recording a new studio album, and work continues on Station Masters where we are revisiting some of our earlier songs with the new line-up."
A year after the initial announcement, in September 2014, this was post:
"We are slowly making progress with the Station Masters retrospective release and will try to get that finished off alongside the new songs."
Since 2014, however, news on the compilation's progress has been sparse until as of late. I think it was originally one or two discs, but not it seems to have been realized as a three-volume retrospective of re-recordings, which may sound like a lot, but they have plenty of material to pick and choose from in their Pre-Longdon/TUY days, so even 3-4 hours worth of re-recordings would be great, but not everything (because I would LOVE to hear their pre-TUY albums all re-done with the new line-up).
Either way, it seems like Station Masters Volume 1 is set for release next year, hopefully. It was originally meant for a 2014 release, but I suppose doing live shows and getting Folklore and Grimspound put together took a long time, too.
Depending on how the new Anathema turns out, this Grimspound may be my album of the year. I like it more and more with each listen
I do hope that the female singer is on more songs in future releases though. She is really good
BBT have been in Top 5 albums of the year for me every time they've released a new album, so this one stands a good chance at being AOTY for me, though like you said, its got some competition, especially if Anathema puts out a good one, but for me, there's also Ayreon (which I need to listen to more), The Tangent, and possibly the third Flying Colors album. Either way, it's another good year for new prog! And I agree, the female vocalist adds a nice touch to the band!
-Marc.