This new release from Izz could well be their best yet. It's also a contender to land on my "best of 2019" list. The modern take on classic prog sounds works very well. There is not a misplaced passage or a single element that doesn't seem to fit. This has surprises, while feeling natural. I know there definite nods here to "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," but I'm not sure if this is a concept album. I should mention the length of the disc. At about 43 minutes, this is as long as an old vinyl LP. I've begun to think recently that those records were just about the ideal length. So many times artists seem to feel that they need to fill the extra time of a CD and that the recording can suffer. I'm glad they opted to keep it relatively concise. (I'm not sure how accurate it is to say that an album with an 18-and-a-half minute song is concise.) All in all, if you like modern prog that is firmly rooted in classic sounds and features multiple singers, this is for you.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019  Volume 4. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.

This is the epic of the piece, weighing it at over 18-and-a-half minutes of music. It comes in a bit tentatively and strange. A jam that seems to feel like the beginning of the song proper emerges about 45 seconds into the number. It has a real Yes-like vibe as they drive through with fast paced prog jamming. That Yes comparison still holds true when they drop it down around the minute-and-a-half mark. A large chunk of this number is made up of a twisting and turning instrumental movement. Eventually they work out into a vocal driven section. The shifts and changes continue, but the number remains firmly set in a classic prog style.  Some guitar soloing around the seven-and-a-half-minute mark is particularly tasty. After soaring outward, this drops to a dramatic guitar based section that makes me think of a cross between Yes and California Guitar Trio. Before the nine-minute-15-second mark, it shifts toward more electric territory. They take it out from there in a jam that really starts to soar. The changes continue as the vocals return. This gets into some decidedly melodic prog sections. When they take it back out into instrumental zones later, it is into a killer classic prog based jam with some great guitar sounds built into it. They take things into another vocal movement from there, and there are some cool guitar fills that soar while the vocals continue to weave their magic. I'm a sucker for guitar soloing that's not restricted to its own little compartment, so that's a big selling point for me. They drop it eventually to a nearly acapella section to end the piece.