Reviewed by MJBrady on 04 Dec 2011

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When I see Marco Minnemann's name being involved with a music project, it usually means some fierce and demonstrative drumming is required, and pair that with keyboardist virtuoso - Lalle Larson, and the level of skill has just reached 10 on the talent scale of 1 to 10.  And to see Phi Yaan-Zek as the guitarist for this project makes things all the more exciting for these ears.  Every Phi Yaan-Zek release has been an experience in progressively rock enhanced fusion. This cd given it's list of credentials, has exceeded my expectations which were already pretty high.  Man these guys are good!  So complex, so beautiful, so brilliantly performed and written.  You have to hear it to believe it, it's kind of like what one might expect the great FZ to be doing if he were alive today.

If you love fusion that has a LOT of written parts, very technically advanced arrangements, and top of the line performers, well, let me say, you will not be one bit let down by buying this cd, it is everything and then some for my tastes.  No long drawn out songs, just shorties, with a huge amount of complexity crammed into each one, nothing boring, nothing really improvised, well, at least from what I can tell, if there is, it sure fooled me. I can't think of anything quite this compelling in the fusion circles for quite some time now, that being said, I hope this is not a one time gig for these guys, this music is quite impressive in every way.

Hearing Marco here reminds me that he auditioned for Dream Theater, but was not chosen from some very good drummers, hopefully he can continue to find partners like Larson and Zek to keep him busy, I can't imagine him doing anything less interesting than music like this.