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It had indeed been a long time since he decided to return to the studio with a (seemingly) stable band. And much time had passed since a controversial album like "Brain Salad Surgery" was released.
After partially successful attempts to re-enter the showbiz, Keith Emerson sets up this band with Gregg Bissonette on drums (at least in the studio) and the young pseudo-metal talent Californian Marc Bonilla on guitar, and after a couple of years of testing, presents this work.
Surely, reviving a musical formula deemed anachronistic in some respects is courageous, but this aspect certainly must not have intimidated the English keyboardist. Renewed in vigor and vehemence and encouraged by Bonilla's fluorescent guitar work (and his powerful voice), the album convinces. The rhythm section decidedly supports the sonic magma and conceptual-harmonic ideas that prolifically run across the 19 sections of a lively almost-suite.
In a recent interview, Emerson stated that it took him a long time to distance himself from the ELP obsession, but if the assumptions with which this band was born are of this kind, let's hope they persist.
Once again, a theme by Alberto Ginastera ("Malambo"), the Argentine composer favored by the keyboardist, is revived, but moments of exquisite intensity are also touched in episodes like "The Art Of Falling Down" but also "Blue Inferno".
The album is available in different formats (cd, Lp, cd+dvd) and the option with dvd, except for the lack of subtitles, is interesting, beyond the photo sections, interviews, and making-of, for half an hour of band concert footage in Hungary in 2006. "Karn Evil 9 - first impression" and "Piano Concerto No.1," among others, show a powerful and robust live show as a demonstration of the achieved balance.
We are waiting to see if, how, and when Mr. Emerson will be able to continue this journey for the thousands of fans who still follow him, despite the seventies being long gone and current musical directions being "Miles Away" from this style.
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