You’ll have to indulge Geoff Tate just a little longer before he realizes fans don’t want what he’s selling. After forcing myself to listen to this a dozen times, you can see where the former prog-metal hero wants to go musically. Sadly it’s not where 90% of his fans want.
I get where he’s coming from. This 50 minute expressive, experimental, alt-metal album does attempt to make a statement, but in the end it’s just really hard to listen to.
There is no cohesiveness that binds the album together and while he comes close to former glories on the impressive Re-Inventing The Future and maybe Life Or Death; elsewhere he delivers utter dreck like The Stranger and Hearing Voices that I struggle to think who it might appeal to.
Tracks like Burn and Ready To Fly just drag and the mood building intro track Choices is largely pointless.
Its 2015 – the market place is selective. Fans want what they want. There isn’t much room for epic concept pieces unless they are very very good.
The production here is ok, but I find that it’s hard to get a grip on everything happening within the mix, it’s a bit of a blur really. There's a lot going on and it's complex enough, but it just doesn't flow for me.
Listening to music should be easy, whatever the mood may call for – escapism, aggression, adrenaline, relaxing or challenging. But it should be easy. This album is a real chore to get through. There’s just too many left turns on this album. Basically Tate keeps turning left and ends up going around in circles.
