Does anyone feel that the first half of Twilight in Olympus is much better than the second half? Smoke and Mirrors to Through the Looking Glass is all amazing, but then The Relic, Orion The Hunter and Lady of the Snow aren't quite up to the same standard.
Absolutely. It's no big secret that TiO was rushed to market by the Japanese label.
The main casualty of this was the title track, which was supposed to be a new
"Divine Wings" but was then left off the album because of lack of time. I think it
later formed the basis for Rediscovery Pt. II on V. And I think the generic riffing on
these later tracks on the Twilight album is probably another result of time pressure.
Plus there are a few oddly rough transitions in the better tracks that I imagine
would've been improved as well if the band had been given more time.