The name of the band itself gave a very pretentious impression. “This is intelligent music!” Well, there is some depth to it, I must give them that, but I still couldn’t grow to like it.

My biggest problem with it is that it’s just bland. I see where they tried to go: make something like Pineapple Thief while borrowing the sound of Stratovarius (let’s ignore the fact that IQ’s been around longer than either of those bands). It didn’t work out.

Very few of the songs linger for long if at all. That’s kind of an issue when supposedly this is intelligent music that should make you ponder serious issues. The only issue it made me ponder was finding the good in it.

Not that it’s bad, but if you grew up on Dream Theater for example, then you’ll probably feel that all the songs are the same, and despite clearly trying hard to be progressive, it doesn’t actually add anything new or original.

As for the music itself, it was and is all about the bass for me. While the keyboards definitely play a very significant role, it’s the bass that sometimes manages to shine, giving the music some taste. The band quite clearly have the technical prowess to play great music, but if I had to judge by this album, they lack the creativity to write any.

There is some variety too, if you are trying really hard to find some. Of course it can be an intentional thing to make the album homogeneous, but without any milestones, any catchy tunes or inspiring lyrics, it just fades into the grey background noise of cars passing outside my window.