The Alien - Great way to start off the album with that fast drum fill. I like the JP lead in the intro, and the outro. Great intro song that got me excited to hear the next track when it was ending.
Answer The Call - That Intro and those Keyboard sounds. Sounds very Awakeish to me. Now that's a dirty riff for solo's...
I am enjoying the chord progression and the melodies. JLB's vocal rhythms are awesome and compliment what Myung and Mangini are doing in the groove. Cool outro, could be extended just a tiny bit more like 5 seconds
Invisible Monster - Not a bad song. Reminds me of Paralyzed, Forsaken, and Build Me Up, Break Me Down blended together with Burning My Soul. I feel the same way about it as I do those songs. I don't mind the Burning My Soul section
Sleeping Giant - Ooo...Pretty haunting atmospheric intro, this is exactly what I was expecting in terms of new keyboard patches. Nice guitar sound as well. Nice singalong "woah's" (Looking forward to doing this live). Yay, another Ragtime section, and this one grooves good too. The solo section makes me want to get up and dance along with the beat.
Interesting outro too, I like that bass. That did not feel like 10 minutes at all...
Transcending Time - Do I hear bells again...
....JLB hit a note that was reminiscent of his Solo album stuff, and I haven't heard him hit that as much as he does on Static Impulse and Impermanent Resonance.
, nice spyish theme. Nice ending vocals there...also...why wasn't this the single instead of Invisible Monster. Music marketing doesn't make sense to me sometimes.
Awaken The Master - Now this is tone is thick....There's that awesome groove from the sample, Loving it...I am really enjoying JR's choice of sound patches and how he decides to use them on these songs. He's using them more atmospherically and it's really noticeable in this song.
A View From The Top of The World -
Shh...The movies starting, reminds me of a movie intro. JP is killing it these leads.
, what was that sound before the vocals start? I'm loving this section with the bass groove, the atmospheric keyboards and guitars. Ooo...The Atmospheric part keyboards have a neat somber tone, and the progression of the rest of this section reminds me of the Kingdom Hearts title theme piano progression. Then the boss battle starts...
I like the ending progression as well, and the melodies. I need to hear it and focus on the lyrics more though.
Overall: This is an energetic, rhythmic, groovy album. I haven't heard them have this sound since Systematic Chaos. Reminds me of that album, with the energy of Train of Thought and Awake. It's melodious like Images and Words and When Dream and Day Unite oddly enough. I am loving the energy of this album, and am really looking towards hearing them live. They're going to
The member I am most proud of is Jordan Rudess. He really went for creating different sounds, and these moments are found in the atmosphere of the album, this is where he is shining the most in his sound choices. I do enjoy how he taking the older sounds and utilizing them to create atmosphere by complimenting the groove and rhythm, and adding a texture for the lead melodies rather than being a lead. Though when he does play his leads, he really decided to play the melody of the song instead of scaling along in improvisation, at least it feels like he worked his solo's to me.
I am bit more bummed now I won't be seeing them next week. I would've been a bit more excited than I am now. But, I am still hyped up to be seeing them in February. Gives me enough time to learn the lyrics, since this is an album that's going to be great to sing along to live.