AC/DC meet Foreigner with a preposterously overblown prog rock twist is the headline here. Choral backings and spiralling synths jostle for supremacy alongside Queen-esque flourishes. Overblown? You bet. Most of the songs extend well beyond the six-minute mark, and ‘Part Two’ (disc 2) features just two songs, but the first (the title track) comprises 8 parts. They have titles like ‘The Problem With Eternity’, ‘Textbook Tyranny’, ‘Social Paradox’ and ‘Misplaced Angst’.
The protracted guitar breaks are straight out of 80s hair rock, and the production values, too, with the crisp, smooth lines and emphasis on the crashing snare sound, are of a similar vintage.
Perhaps this sprawling 19-ttrack double album’s greatest achievement is just how ordinary and uninspired it sounds. For all its screeching histrionics – they could give The Darkness a run for their money in places – ‘Insight to the Mind’ is remarkably unremarkable.
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One album’s worth is more than sufficient; the second disc goes beyond overkill.
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