Though the album starts with two tracks that demonstrate only one of the many faces of this band, namely the more direct and immediate one, the album does takes many twists and swirls into very apart grounds that, nevertheless, never sound forced or unnatural.
Both the title track and Burning Inside Me are powerful, guitar driven tracks, with a substantial standard structure, in song format, that, though interesting, do not by any means compare to what’s next. In fact, I’m afraid they will mislead the casual listener to make wrong first impressions.
For me, the album really gets airborne with Schizophrenic Playground, where Hugo Flores and his mates Carlos Mateus and Nuno Ferreira start furthering their trips into a very peculiar mix between Guitar based Prog-Metal, Space Rock, New Wave, Neo and Symphonic Prog. From this moment on, the album takes on a sort of futuristic mindset that is perfectly corresponded in the music and its complex architecture.
The aforementioned track starts with sci-fi inhuman vocals and atmospheric patterns upon which an edgy guitar soloing is developed. The piano and keyboards keep it on the melodic paths while the distorted guitar unveils a darker side. This is very complex stuff, and rewarding too, as the instruments take turns at the centre stage in stunning rotativity.
Obviously, like throughout the whole album, it’s the metallic riffage and soloing of Hugo that mostly stands out, though the other instruments subtly (or more than that) participates in the architectural drawing of the overall musicality.
The more challenging tracks are interluded by calmer ones, like the Space Rock interludes Intro and Ghosts of the Lost Planes or, in other style, Always Knew, where Sonic Pulsar takes a dive into the ballad side, a place that also has no secrets to Hugo, as he has been showing in prior works. In this just mentioned track, I would emphasize the Piano work, which adds beautiful melodic lines.
I Heard of a Place Called Earth and Solitary Star edit, in their ten minutes duration each (curiously, both have the exact same time, clocking for 10:07 minutes), the whole palette of SP’s musicality, as both travel throughout most of the entirety of this bands flanks. They start with a calm ambiance, just to be transformed in powerful swirling tracks with diverse velocity gears that explore both the Technical Metal paths and the Symphonic/Spacey/Melodic sensibilities of the band.
Doing perfect justice to its name, Instrumetal is an instrumental track very much dwelling in the realms of technical Prog Metal. Sometimes approaching the great instrumental moments of Dream Theater, but also of the Portuguese colleagues Forgotten Suns latest release, this track simply smokes! IMO, one of the best (if not the absolute best) of the entire album!
Moving Engines has some more futuristic basing sounds that vaguely remind me of Ayreon, though the music itself moves totally in an opposite direction. Not as overtly complex as some of the prior tracks, this one presents us some of the best Piano melodies of the album, as well as various vocal layers that simply sound great. It is another of my fav tracks here, as it continues the mix of more laid back, melodic lines with more powerful ones (though never reaching the borders of the Metal tendencies shown in the other tracks), but all done with very good taste and crafted enlightenment.
The ending Time Has Been Broken follows the policy of Hard Prog with some Neo-Prog and slight Sympho reminiscences, but as it revisits the structures and style of the first two tracks in the album, I am not as convinced with it as with its preceding tracks, except for the instrumental parts, where the band shows, once more, its true potential.

To conclude, Out of Place show us a band in continuous evolution, experimenting new paths and felling completely comfortable in doing so. And with a great label behind them, the talent can be properly supported and guided in the right direction.
This album is way better than Playing the Universe as it is more consistent and cohesive. And even if its not perfect, it is good enough for me to rejoice with it…and I am sure that the next will even be better. So while I am eagerly awaiting for SP’s next step, I will water my mouth with the solo Hugo Flores project called Creation that features great friends of mine as guest musicians…